Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
We’ve already had the Champions League Semi Finals earlier this week as Real Madrid and Juventus look set to have booked their place in Cardiff at the start of June after comprehensive first leg wins and Tonight the focus shifts to the Europa League.
Ajax played last night and were successful against Lyon as they hit four past their French opponents and have all but confirmed a berth in the Final but who will they face off against? Is it Celta Vigo or Manchester United.
Celta have surprised many with their run in the competition and in all fairness they have put all their focus into this cup run at the expense of their La Liga season. They currently find themselves 11th and with no threat of relegation they have pretty much coasted along in the final few months of the season.
But Europe has proved a different proposition as they have progressed to the Semi Final stage with relative ease. That has been in no small part thanks to the attacking duo of Iago Aspas and John Guidetti, who have scored nine goals between them in this competition.
Neither player had all that much success during their time in the Premier League with Liverpool and Manchester City respectively but they have had something of a resurgence since playing in Northern Spain.
Tonight they play host to Manchester United at the Baladios stadium as Jose Mourinho brings something of a patched up team after picking up a number of injuries to key personnel over the past few weeks.
Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw were added to the injury list after limping off on Sunday but there is some good news as Bailly trained in the week alongside Phil Jones and Chris Smalling. So after Michael Carrick and Daley Blind finished the game at centre back on Sunday, Mourinho could have at least have a recognised partnership for tonight’s game.
Another returnee could well be Paul Pogba who has been suffering muscle fatigue as of late, while you cannot rule out a return for Juan Mata either who has recovered quicker than expected after undergoing groin surgery.
It was another frustrating home draw for Manchester United on Sunday as they dropped points to Swansea, this means that qualification for the Champions League is not in their own hands at present but this competition as we well know is the perfect plan b
The next couple of games may well define the route that Mourinho finally takes in the fork in the road as they also face Arsenal at The Emirates on Sunday. Defeat there coupled with a win here would likely mean it is operation Europa for the rest of the campaign.
In the previous round United made harder work than needed to after finally disposing of Anderlecht. It required extra time after both legs ended 1-1 in normal time but Marcus Rashford was on hand to get the winner goal and render a penalty shoot out needless.
That game was something of a war of attrition as United lost both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Marcos Rojo to injury and serious ones at that. Both players suffered cruciate ligaments injury and Ibrahimovic who went under the knife earlier in the week has vowed to bounce back to full fitness.
Celta will no doubt be pleased they don’t have to deal with the mercurial Swede but that is not to say they will have an easy night. United will want to bag an away goal just like they did against Anderlecht in the previous round.
Therefore don’t be surprised if this one ends in a score draw especially with United’s possible centre back issues, a lot will ride on what the exact first team that Jose Mourinho names but at this stage of the competition there are no easy games. I’ll go for a score draw
