Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has expressed his desire to stay in the in ongoing UEFA Europa League tournament till the last day of the tournament.
After making it to the quarterfinals by beating LASK 2-1 in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie at Old Trafford, Solskjaer is hoping to get United their second Europa League trophy in three years.
“Let’s see how long it lasts – hopefully more than two days, hopefully up to 12 days,” Solskjaer was quoted as saying on the official website of Manchester United.
“We’re going to approach it one game at a time. Everyone’s going to travel on Sunday morning or Saturday night and we’ll stay together for as long as we’re in the tournament,” he added.
The Red Devils comfortably moved to the quarterfinals with an aggregate score of 7-1, courtesy of their 5-0 victory in the first leg played on March 12. Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial scored the two goals of the night for them after Philipp Wiesinger had given LASK the lead in the second half.
Despite United having a five-goal lead and playing in their own backyard, it was the visitors who looked determined to get the first breakthrough. LASK irritated United throughout the opening half and Solskjaer reflected that the hosts were not at their best.
“We didn’t quite have the sharpness. Of course, they haven’t played for a while, some of these lads, and it showed. But we won again, and it was another debut [for] one of the kids, so it’s been a good night. We expected them to come out flying and aggressive because we’ve seen them before and of course there’s a new coach who wants them to work hard,” Solskjaer said
“We expected it. It’s difficult when they haven’t played for a while, our players. They’ve been in and out, 10 or 15 minutes each but not many have played 90 minutes and definitely not together as a team. It took some time before we got the rhythm but we won the game and that’s job done,” the Norwegian boss added.
United will now face Copenhagen in Germany. The remaining part of the tournament will be played in neutral venues in a single country inside a bio-secure bubble to avoid the risk of contamination the coronavirus.
“Now we travel to Germany with a squad that’s had enough game time. These players needed to play tonight to get their rhythm and get their confidence up and get the feel of a game. It won’t be the same team, so we’ll make some changes,” the former United player said.