A POSSIBLE FIRST TROPHY FOR OLE?

~By Hitanshu Samantaray

A Fairly Easy Start 

Placed in Group-L alongside AZ Alkmaar, FK Partizan and FC Astana, Manchester United began their Europa League journey in a fairly easy group, coming out at the top with 13 pts from a possible 18. Proceeding to the Round of 32, we were matched up against Club Brugge drawing 1-1 in the first leg, but emphatically winning 6-1 on aggregate at the end of both the legs. Come to the first leg of the Round of 16, we completely bossed LASK in a thumping 5-0 victory and we comfortably look onto proceeding to the Quarter Finals. Let's have a look at the second leg against LASK...

Class of 20' Rout?

It's safe to assume that Manchester United should be easily through to the quarters given their 5-0 cushion over LASK and will allow Solksjaer to field his promising youngsters, brimming with talent, raring to go. Tahith Chong's opportunities have been limited by the emergence and the rapid rise of Mason Greenwood and ties like this are a really good opportunity for him to show the gaffer what he's all about, and possibly earn a loan move for himself as well. 

James Garner and Dylan Levitt are two other academy players who've impressed playing for the U-23s, while Ethan Laird has even started training with the first-team due to injuries to Tuanzebe and Jones. This is a good chance to try out different things as well, to maybe try out different players in different positions like Dalot at RW.

We could even see Hannibal Mejbri who has been making waves since his £10 million move from Monaco. Overall, the prospect of seeing our youngsters play, given the recent success of Rashford, Greenwood and McTominay, is really exciting.

Let's have a look at the Road to Cologne...

The Road to Cologne

Virtually being through the Round of 16, we can expect either Copenhagen or Istanbul Basaksehir in the Quarters, with the latter leading the former by a goal in the first leg. Being a one-legged tie and given United's red hot form, we're highly unlikely to lose to either of these teams. Looking forward to the Semis, it could be our Premier League rivals Wolves, an Olympiakos side who knocked out Arsenal and held Wolves for a draw in the first leg, Italian Giants Roma or Record Winners of the Trophy-Sevilla, which would be definitely more challenging than our previous match-ups. On the other side, we can see Shakhtar with a 2-1 lead and precious away goals against Wolfsburg, Basel with a 3-0 cushion over Frankfurt, Leverkusen with a 3-1 lead over Rangers, while the other ties will be held as one-legged matches only.

Summary

Manchester United have really shown that hunger, determination and ruthlessness that had been somewhat lacking since Sir Alex Ferguson's departure, and we're starting to play that exciting brand of football as well, which has been really encouraging for the fans. With the Top Three spot for the taking, a trophy or two would never do harm going into the next season, if not massively boost the squad's morale.

As Ole said in his interview, 

"We should not look too much forward and look at what lies ahead of us" 

But as a fan, we're always enthralled to think about what the future holds. The belief is there, the positivity is there, the raw sense of excitement is there, the United DNA seems to be coming back, everything is there for the taking for us and all we have to do is grab the opportunity.

We believe in Manchester United.

Do you?

"She's coming Home again"