Manchester United – Anderlecht

Manchester United’s biggest goal this season is a return to the Champions League. And if Jose Mourinho’s team can’t do it in the Premier League, they still have a so called “back-up option” – winning the Europa League.

On Thursday night the Red Devils are hosting the Belgian giant Anderlecht in an Europa League 1/4-final second leg at the Old Trafford in Manchester. The first match between the two teams ended with a 1-1 draw, which kept Anderlecht’s chances for going through, but in same time put Manchester United in a good position before the rematch.

As we already said, Jose Mourinho takes Europa League very seriously, as it could be his ticket for returning to the Champions League next season. That’s why you should expect to see the Special One picking the best possible XI he could pick for the game.

As for Anderlecht, they are the obvious underdogs in this game. It would be a big surprise to see the Belgians leaving the Theatre of Dreams as winners, but in football there’s nothing impossible, right?

Everyone at Manchester United is in high spirits after the great performance against Chelsea in the Premier League. Jose Mourinho led his team to a fantastic win over his former team and proved that United are still a team, which is capable to beat everyone.

It’s interesting to see what Jose Mourinho is going to decide about Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s participation in the game. The Swedish superstar was left on the bench against Chelsea, which probably surprised a lot of people. We all know how big Zlatan’s ego is, so it’s unclear how he’d react if Mourinho leaves him out of the starting XI for a second match in a row.

This is a good game to watch with Manchester United being the heavy favourite to qualify for the next phase of the competition. English clubs usually do not take Europa League very serously, but this time the situation is different and there’s a good reason for that.