Celta Vigo/Man United Europa League Semi Final 1st leg (BT Sports 2, 20:05)

Lithium93_

First ever meeting between the two sides in European competition, and Celta Vigo's first ever European semi final, with United returning to the semi final stage of a European competition for the first time in 6 years (h/t The_Kew_Tour for that)

What is the team news?

Celta Vigo

Giuseppe Rossi, the Italy and former Manchester United striker, is out until at least December after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last month and the left-back Carles Planas is unavailable after hurting his knee last week, but not so severely. The goalkeeper Rubén Blanco, who has played in four Europa League matches this season, hurt his right thigh at the beginning of March but resumed training on Monday.

Celta, who are 11th in La Liga, are likely to stick with the 4-3-3 system that has served them so well, with Pione Sisto, Iago Aspas and John Guidetti up front. Aspas is in tremendous form after being bombed out at Anfield early and not given the 18 months it sometimes takes for Spanish players to settle in England while Guidetti will be familiar to Man City fans and Sisto to United fans - he scored home and away against them for Midtjylland last season, the second overshadowed by Marcus Rashford's dream debut.

Manchester United

You would think Jose Mourinho might have mentioned that Manchester United are experiencing a few injury problems, wouldn't you? Instead it falls to us to break the news this stoical, reasonable man is too forbearing to reveal. Sadly United will be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling, all suffering from knee injuries of varying seriousnes and Luke Shaw who has hurt his foot. Happily, though, Eric Bailly has been passed fit enough to join the party and both he and the other main doubt, Paul Pogba, are expected to play. In another boost Phil Jones trained on Tuesday and has been included in the 23-man squad.

Manchester United squad De Gea, Romero, Pereira; Bailly, Blind, Darmian, Jones, Smalling, Tuanzebe, Valencia, Young; Carrick, Fellaini, Herrera, Lingard, Mata, McTominay, Mkhitaryan, Pogba, Willock; Martial, Rashford, Rooney.

United's predicted line up

[IMG][/img]

Can't find the Celta predicted line up, so if anyone does find it later, put it here please.

jayo26

Lithium93_

jayo26 wrote: »

That'll be M!Ck^ delighted so.

ScummyMan

Lithium93_ wrote: »

Sadly United will be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo and Chris Smalling, all suffering from knee injuries of varying seriousnes and Luke Shaw who has hurt his foot.

According to Jose Smalling is good to go.

https://twitter.com/ManUtd/status/859817683919015938?s=09

Jayop

Sure how could anyone even guess how this will go tonight. I'd predict we'll go through, just, but the away game could be anything.

elefant

It'll be some achievement for a team with that front 3 to get to a European final.

GavRedKing

elefant wrote: »

It'll be some achievement for a team with that front 3 to get to a European final.

Utds front three arent that bad are they?

Jayop

elefant wrote: »

It'll be some achievement for a team with that front 3 to get to a European final.

United?

elefant

GavRedKing wrote: »

Utds front three arent that bad are they?

Martial, Rashford and Lingard?

In the future, Martial and Rashford could be frightening. Right now, no.
Of course they're young, but less than 50 career top-flight goals between them.

Maybe I'm in the minority.

Jayop

Celta play a high line and those are three of the fastest most willing to run in behind forwards you'd ask for. I'd have those three for this game over Zlatan if he was fit.

Lingard has a habit of scoring big game goals, Rashford is in good form and has destroyed better teams. Martial is out of sorts this year but is a top talent.

I'd say it's just you.

elefant

Jayop wrote: »

Celta play a high line and those are three of the fastest most willing to run in behind forwards you'd ask for. I'd have those three for this game over Zlatan if he was fit.

Lingard has a habit of scoring big game goals, Rashford is in good form and has destroyed better teams. Martial is out of sorts this year but is a top talent.

I'd say it's just you.

Fair enough. And Celta are no world-beaters for sure. It was more a comment on what that strike-force looks like to me without Ibra up top.

I've never seen anything impressive about Lingard, though. I obviously wouldn't watch United as often as you lads, but if he has a habit of scoring big goals he mustn't score many small ones!

Trigger

Fellaini will start I reckon to bypass the Celta press

edit :Just realised he was in the predicted line up, dunno how I missed that

bennyineire

0-0 draw tonight followed by the obligatory 1-1 draw in Old Trafford which would spare Utd the embarrassment of getting hockied by Ajax in the final

Mantis Toboggan

bennyineire wrote: »

0-0 draw tonight followed by the obligatory 1-1 draw in Old Trafford which would spare Utd the embarrassment of getting hockied by Ajax in the final

Defeat is unthinkable given our stature and the investment over the last few years.

I'm going 1-1 tonight and 2-0 back in OT

bucketybuck

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Defeat is unthinkable given our stature and the investment over the last few years.

Unfortunately tired legs and missing players don't care about stature or investment, so defeat is very thinkable indeed.

Jayop

Wouldn't be surprised if we lost tonight something like 2 1. We should score and should be able to win the tie but this game is no gimme. They were apparently resting players on Sunday night for this too.

jacool

Tyson Fury wrote: »

Defeat is unthinkable given our stature and the investment over the last few years.

Unless Celta Vigo adopt a Monco-rabbit-in-the-headlight-its-Juventus attitude they should put up some showing. They played the same 11 in the two ties against Genk, and put them all out again in the 2-1 loss to Sevilla. Other than that they have played no more than 3 of the starting 11 in the other 3 league games. With Europe out of sight for them in La Liga, it looks like they will have all eggs in the basket for tonight.
Hopefully an early goal makes for an open game.

Nalz

RobertKK

https://twitter.com/squawka/status/860152500757966849

Pogba has completely more passes than any other in the Europa League.

GreNoLi

Have no idea what to expect from celta, just hoping for an entertaining match, 2-2.

Nalz

Impossible to predict... will take an outside stab at 1-1

Lithium93_

Lithium93_ wrote: »

That'll be M!Ck^ delighted so.

NoviGlitzko

Considering our home form we cannot afford a loss tonight.

Jayop

NoviGlitzko wrote: »

Considering our home form we cannot afford a loss tonight.

We've won 6/6 at home in the EL this year scoring 15 and conceding 2. Our home form in this competition has been excellent.

Turtwig

No disrespect to Celta but every season the longer it goes on the more their lack of squad depth shows and fatigue kicks in. Only in their solitary season under Enrique did they sustain their form until the end. That coupled with the fact that they're not actually very good at the moment and play a style that should suit United should make it a relatively easy victory for United.

Draw it is then.

jacool wrote: »

Unless Celta Vigo adopt a Monco-rabbit-in-the-headlight-its-Juventus attitude they should put up some showing. They played the same 11 in the two ties against Genk, and put them all out again in the 2-1 loss to Sevilla. Other than that they have played no more than 3 of the starting 11 in the other 3 league games. With Europe out of sight for them in La Liga, it looks like they will have all eggs in the basket for tonight.
Hopefully an early goal makes for an open game.

This is true but I don't think it was rotation by necessity of putting all their eggs in one basket. I'd love them to play to their potential but I'm really skeptical they can do so at this moment.

Lithium93_

https://twitter.com/ManUtd/status/860191706830000128

GreNoLi

Nalz wrote: »

I'm enjoying Burley as a pundit, he isn't neutered like he would be on British tele.

~Rebel~

Kind of guessing Jose will go for a containing game tonight, first and foremost setting out not to concede. An away goal would be a bonus, but defense to be the priority.

NoviGlitzko

Jayop wrote: »

We've won 6/6 at home in the EL this year scoring 15 and conceding 2. Our home form in this competition has been excellent.

The last game against Anderlecht at home was eerily similar to what has been going on in the league all year. You'd feel these teams will have done their homework by now. I definitely think we need something tonight.

The Chosen Juan comes off the bench for the winner

niallo27

Jayop wrote: »

We've won 6/6 at home in the EL this year scoring 15 and conceding 2. Our home form in this competition has been excellent.

Technically ye didn't win the home tie against anderlecht.

Score draw

Jayop

niallo27 wrote: »

Technically ye didn't win the home tie against anderlecht.

Technically we did. The game lasted 120 minutes but united won 2-1.

niallo27

Jayop wrote: »

Technically we did. The game lasted 120 minutes but united won 2-1.

Tell that to the bookies if you backed utd.

Trigger

Re-write the history books!! Winning in extra time doesn't count as winning

Trigger

niallo27 wrote: »

Tell that to the bookies if you backed utd.

Well you should have backed United to go thru instead of winning in 90 mins

yabadabado

niallo27 wrote: »

Tell that to the bookies if you backed utd.

Bookies make their own rules.
90 min only posted on all bets why would anyone query it?

Jayop

niallo27 wrote: »

Tell that to the bookies if you backed utd.

Since when does that matter? The bookies specify I'm these games 'after 90 minutes' because otherwise it's obviously accepted that a winning goal in extra time wins the game.

So can I ask, in that match did Rashford score the winner?

niallo27

We all know they won, I am just saying you don't usually get extra time to win a game. It's not a big deal don't get too worked up about it.

yabadabado

Jayop wrote: »

Since when does that matter? The bookies specify I'm these games 'after 90 minutes' because otherwise it's obviously accepted that a winning goal in extra time wins the game.

So can I ask, in that match did Rashford score the winner?

Its matters when some harmless none wum needs to be getting in some irrelevant dig in

Kerrydude1981

Looks like a mighty party going on in the streets over there

niallo27

yabadabado wrote: »

Its matters when some harmless none wum needs to be getting in some irrelevant dig in

Jaysus your very precious tonight.

yabadabado

niallo27 wrote: »

Jaysus your very precious tonight.

What an odd thing to say .

why would I be precious over a stranger posting something on a message board?

niallo27

yabadabado wrote: »

What an odd thing to say .

why would I be precious over a stranger posting something on a message board?

I really don't know, anyone enjoy the match and have a wonderful night.

Turtwig

yabadabado wrote: »

Its matters when some harmless none wum needs to be getting in some irrelevant dig in

niallo27 wrote: »

Jaysus your very precious tonight.

Mod: Please cool it folks. No need for disagreements to include subtle digs. If necessary agree to disagree and move on.

yabadabado

niallo27 wrote: »

I really don't know, anyone enjoy the match and have a wonderful night.

I will indeed have a wonderfull night and I hope you do likewise .Please dont post anymore nonsense about results of matches,like a good lad.

Mantis Toboggan

Injury crisis? Savage bench for United

The Mulk

I'm over in Vigo at the moment, great city and great people, really great atmosphere around the place. C'mon Celta, Aspas to put them through :-P

yabadabado

comfortable win for United tonight.

Brilliant to have that strength in depth on the bench.

fuzzydunlop85

One of the city/pool rejects bound to score.

statto25

I haven't been this nervous for a united game in a long time. It's a strange feeling as it's the importance of the game that's weighing on me more than the team we are playing. A one nil win would do me.