Jose Mourinho has now named Arsenal and Manchester United among his four favourites to win the Europa League. He believes they have a ‘responsibility’ to compete for the title.
Manchester United will face another of the teams the AS Roma boss feels must go deep in FC Barcelona. The Red Devils visit the Blaugrana in the first leg of the knockout round play-offs on Thursday. Barcelona will then visit Old Trafford in the reverse game next Thursday.
Roma visit RB Salzburg in the first leg of their knockout round play-off after Mourinho led the Giallorossi to second in Group C. Manchester United finished second in Group E, while Barcelona and RB Salzburg fell down from the Champions League having finished in third.
Arsenal will not compete in the knockout round play-offs having secured a bye by finishing first in Group A. Mikel Arteta’s team topped the table to PSV Eindhoven by two points with five wins. Manchester United won five games but trailed Real Sociedad on goal difference.
Both, Manchester United and Real Sociedad, secured 15 points in Group E. But the La Liga outfit only conceded two goals to their 10 scored. Erik ten Hag’s team also netted 10 goals but conceded three. Now, they must face Barcelona to secure a place in the Round of 16.
Mourinho names Arsenal and Manchester United in his Europa League favourites
Manchester United’s match with Barcelona will remove one of the teams Mourinho views as favourites to win the Europa League this season. The Roma boss believes his side should not be expected to go all the way as they are not designed to win the elite European titles.
But as Manchester United and Barcelona, plus Arsenal and Juventus, are expected to rival for silverware, Mourinho believes they now have a ‘responsibility’ to be in the mix to win the Europa League. Juve meet FC Nantes having also fallen out of the Champions League.
He said, via quotes by TuttoMercatoWEB: “When I was talking about sharks, I was talking about clubs made to win the Champions League and which are in the Europa League.
“Arsenal, Barcelona, Manchester United and Juventus; the responsibility rests entirely on them. The weight we felt last year in the Conference League is now on the shoulders of these teams.
“Salzburg is not made to win the Champions League but to compete. They did it well, but they finished third and now they’re here with us.”
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