Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has declared that he will make changes for Manchester United’s upcoming Europa League quarter-final with FC Copenhagen.
United travel to Germany this weekend, following the 2-1 win over LASK that confirmed our place in the unique mini-tournament that will decide the winner of the competition.
Solskjaer made nine alterations from our previous game – a 2-0 Premier League win over Leicester – and told reporters afterwards that more changes will follow in Cologne on Monday.
Jesse Lingard started the match at Old Trafford, and notched his second goal in as many games by clipping home our equaliser. But the Academy graduate was then substituted shortly afterwards, which may offer a clue that he will be involved again.
Juan Mata also impressed, providing assists for both of united goals, while Eric Bailly played the full 90 minutes after overcoming a head injury suffered in the FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea. Both will hope to keep their place.
The Europa League has offered Solskjaer an opportunity to rest and rotate throughout this long and gruelling campaign. Monday’s match will be our 60th in all competitions, and takes place 365 days on from our opening fixture of 2019/20 – a 4-0 Premier League win over Chelsea in front of a packed house at Old Trafford.
Sergio Romero started in goal against LASK – his eighth start from our 10 Europa League games this season – but will David De Gea return to the starting XI for the last-eight tie?
Ole was non-committal after Wednesday’s game, saying:
“I’m not going to say Sergio is the Europa League keeper. It’s between him and David all the time. We’re going to pick a team that we think is going to win this tournament, so you’ll just have to wait and see.”
In defence, Solskjaer confirmed Victor Lindelof had been rested, and was not injured, which suggests the Swede could return against Copenhagen. Skipper Harry Maguire is almost certain to keep his spot in the other centre-back berth, after perhaps unexpectedly playing the entirety of the second leg against LASK despite our healthy 5-0 advantage from the first leg.
“First of all, he’s desperate to play, he’s the captain,”
said the boss, of Maguire.
“There’s a reason why he’s the captain: he always wants to play, but he’s always ready to play. He’s missed one game, two games this season maybe through some illness, and I think he just gets sharper and sharper the more he plays. He’ll get his time off after this tournament, so no worries about that.”
Luke Shaw and Axel Tuanzebe have already been ruled out for the remainder of the current season, so will play no part in the rest of our Europa League campaign, but Solskjaer did reveal that Phil Jones had been training away from the squad as he bids to ramp up his recovery from injury. Ole believes the England defender could feature in Germany, so that might be one we hear more about in the pre-match press conference this weekend.
Up front, Anthony Martial came on to great effect as a late substitute against LASK, scoring the goal that won us the game. It also nudged him ahead of Marcus Rashford in the race to become United’s leading scorer for the season.
The Frenchman now has 23, one ahead of Rashford, so both will be champing at the bit to add to their tallies by the Rhine in a few days’ time.
HOW IS THE STATE OF COPENHAGEN
Manchester united Scandinavian opponents sealed their spot in the last eight by overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit to Istanbul Basaksehir with a comprehensive 3-0 win just before we kicked off against LASK. And there are some familiar faces in their squad: notably, Uruguayan full-back Guillermo Varela and ex-Everton and Sunderland left-back Bryan Oviedo. Varela has two places in the United pub-quiz pantheon, being the first signing of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era and also providing the cross for Marcus Rashford’s first Premier League goal, against Arsenal.
Injury concerns for FCK include Nicolaj Thomsen, Ragnar Sigurdsson and Viktor Fischer, while forward Michael Santos is suspended after UEFA found him guilty of assaulting a police officer during a Europa League match with Celtic. Copenhagen named just seven substitutes for their last match, despite the rules permitting 12.
