While Naldo’s late victor sounded the final death knell for United in the Champions League this season, even a draw wouldn’t have been good enough for the Old Trafford giants, with PSV Eindhoven coming from behind to defeat CSKA Moscow and advance in United’s stead.
Advertisement
“When you play Thursday and Sunday, it can affect the mentality and the psychology of the players”. “I was in a squad that went into the Europa League and it’s an embarrassment. Everyone wants to be in the Champions League”.
Manchester United’s Chris Smalling after sustaining an injury.
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid ended the group stage as winners of their respective mini-Leagues and, as a result, can’t play the likes of Manchester City, Bayern Munich and Chelsea, who also won their groups.
-Of all United managers, only Lal Hilditch in 1926-27 (14.3%) has drawn a higher proportion of league games 0-0 than Louis van Gaal (13.2% – 7/53).
Van Gaal now has nine players in the treatment room, but he can not use that as an excuse for flopping in Europe.
Who can the Premier League teams draw?
Bournemouth themselves have been forced to cope with a substantial injury list but Lee Tomlin (groin) and Sylvain Distin (illness) could return against United, while Tommy Elphick (ankle) is progressing well from an ankle injury.
United managed just seven goals in their six group stage matches, with their chronic lack of goals annoying Fellaini. They (Wolfsburg) scored three goals – two from set-pieces.
“For sure Manchester United will feel very disappointed after last night because they had the possibility to go into the next round”, Pochettino said on Wednesday.
“There has been a lot of talk about us changing our philosophy, but I’d like to think it came out on top”, said midfielder Harry Arter.
Van Gaal did not sound optimistic about the chances of Smalling or Darmian being fit for the trip to the south coast when he spoke after Tuesday’s game.
Advertisement
Chelsea: Mourinho’s disillusioned champions have struggled to find any sort of form this term, meaning it is hard to hang “the favourites” tag on them for any of their possible fixtures.
