Jose Mourinho has one last chance to qualify for the Champions League in his first season as Manchester United Manager as the Red Devils play off in the Europa League Final Thursday morning against Ajax. ‘The Chosen One’ failed to finish in the top four of the domestic competition, ending the season in 6th place, 7 points behind Liverpool.
Mourinho made plenty of off season changes before the start of the 2016/17 season, bringing in high prized recruits in Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, making the Red Devils the pre-season Premier League favourites. Despite a 27-game unbeaten streak through the middle of the season, Manchester United failed to secure enough wins to finish in the top four, however, their solid defensive form worked well in the knockout format that was the Europa League.
They’ll face Dutch team Ajax in the final kicking off Thursday morning at 4.45am from Friends Arena in Sweden. It will be the first time since 2002 that a Dutch team has competed in the final of a European Final while the Red Devils haven’t reached a final themselves since the 2010/11 Champions League where they lost 3-1 to Barcelona.
While they don’t hail from the most competitive league in Europe, Ajax have proven that they can match it with the best clubs on the continent, splitting their four previous games with the Red Devils two wins apiece. It’s been a long time between drinks for the Dutch side though, with their last piece of European silverware coming back in 1995 when they defeated Milan in the Champions League final. Interestingly enough, that game featured fathers of current players Justin Kluivery and Daley Blind, who will compete on Thursday morning.
History will only take a club so far, however, and it’s the seasons form that will be more of a barometer coming into Thursday morning’s matchup. As we mentioned above, the Red Devils had a remarkable 27 game unbeaten run earlier in the season. Although they struggled to find the back of the net at times, their defence led by recruit Eric Bailly has been extremely stingy, letting up just 29 goals throughout the EPL season and just 4 in their last 10 Europa League games.
On the contrary, Ajax have been one of the better scoring teams throughout their domestic and Europa League campaign netting 81 goals in the regular season and 11 through their last 5 European tilts. The front three of Amin Younes, Kasper Dolberg and Bertrand Traore has been damaging and should be a big task for the United back four.
At home in Old Trafford, it would be hard to bet against the Red Devils here, but over in Sweden, it will feel more like a home game for the Dutch side, who should have plenty of fans making the trip North. Jose Mourinho has the wood over the Dutch side, winning all six of his meetings with them so far, but in a game that could end up being decided by penalties, we are happy taking some heavy value here.
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Manchester United have had problems scoring goals throughout the year and their job will be made even tougher with no Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the line-up due to a torn ACL. However, one player that is no stranger to the limelight is Paul Pogba. The Frenchmanhas had a return to form of late, scoring in the Red Devils last game. A match winning goal would be fitting for a player of Pogba's standard.
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