Manchester United will face off against the Danish side, F.C. Copenhagen, in the Europa League Quarter Finals on Monday evening.

United go into this Quarter Final tie having stormed through the Round Of 16 against LASK by beating them 7-1 on aggregate.

At this stage in the competition, there is no denying that the Europa League will be a focus of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and his men as the pressure is now growing on him and the squad to win a trophy. Manchester United haven't won a trophy since May, 2017. Therefore a trophy win will be on the top of Solskjaer's agenda.

The pressure is on to win the Europa League now since Mikel Arteta's admirable FA Cup win.

  • Team News

United's full Europa League squad has been announced: David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Lee Grant, Nathan Bishop, Ethan Laird, Teden Mengi, Victor Lindelof, Eric Bailly, Harry Maguire, Diogo Dalot, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Brandon Williams, Paul Pogba, Fred, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, James Garner, Ethan Galbraith, Bruno Fernandes, Daniel James, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Andreas Pereira, Tahith Chong, Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, Odion Ighalo

The team consists of a great balance between academy players and fully fledged first team stars. Some of which came through our academy such as Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood. This competition allows the next generation of academy players such as James Garner and Ethan Galbraith to get their chance to burst on the scene. Phil Jones has just been ruled out today through injury.

Predicted Manchester United line up: 4-2-3-1

De Gea, Wan-Bissaka, Maguire, Lindelof, Williams, Pogba, Matic, Fernandes, Rashford, Greenwood, Martial

Predicted F.C. Copenhagen line up: 4-2-3-1

Johnsson, Varela, Nelsson, Bjelland, Boilesen, Mudražija, Zeca, Pep Biel, Wind, Falk, Kaufmann

  • Ones To Watch

Manchester United - Bruno Fernandes

Bruno Fernandes has enjoyed his time at Manchester United so far to say the least. The Portuguese has scored eight times in the Premier League alone and scored six goals in the Europa League so far, five being with Sporting Lisbon and one being with us. This makes him the Europa Leagues joint top scorer along with five other players, one being Diogo Jota, his fellow countryman who plays for Wolves. This makes Fernandes one to watch for this game.

F.C. Copenhagen - Jonas Wind

Jonas Wind is a potent centre forward for F.C. Copenhagen scoring five times in only six appearances in the Superligaen whilst making his Europa League debut against Istanbul Basaksehir on Wednesday night which saw him score twice in 49 minutes which ultimately won them the tie. This makes Wind, F.C. Copenhagen's one to watch.

  • Relationship Between Managers

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Copenhagen's manager Stale Solbakken have a friendship that has lasted over 20 years on the pitch and off the pitch. They used to play in the Norway national team with eachother and even gained their coaching badges together on their road to becoming managers. In an interview with the Mirror, Solbakken said when asked about Solskjaer“I think his biggest strength is that he's very calm, he knows which direction he wants to go in.

 

“We've been texting each other this week. He texted me before our game on Wednesday and straight after."

It is safe to say that whatever the result is at the final whistle on Monday, that there will be no hard feelings between the coaches.

  • Guillermo Varela

Guillermo Varela will most likely feature against his old club Manchester United on Monday.

His stint at Manchester United was rather lacklustre joining from Penarol in the summer of 2013 for £2.16m. He was then loaned out to RM Castilla just a year later after a bad season in the u23's squad. Upon returning from loan he was called up to the first team at United and began playing more regularly, including in the Premier League and Champions League. However just over a year after his call up he was out on loan again at Frankfurt. After playing more in the Bundesliga, once Varela had returned from loan in 2017 he was immediately sold back to his parent club Penarol in Uruguay for £675k.

 

Since his nightmare stint in English football, Varela has improved playing in the Uruguay First Division where he picked up much more game than previous. But since his move to Copenhagen in January of 2019 he has been playing the best football of his career, he's picked up four assists in 37 appearances this season. The most recent being in the Istanbul game on Wednesday in which Varela proved vital in their course to victory.

  • Where to watch

The Europa League Quarter Final will be broadcast exclusively on BT Sport on Monday night at 8PM

VAVEL Logo
About the author