Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata admits his side is out of the Premier League title race, and thus must now refocus their ambitions and goals for the season. Mata says that now the priority is to win and progress through the UEFA Champions League. United will kick off at Sevilla, in the road leg of their round of 16 tie, a couple hours from now. For those Red Devils fans who made the trip, thanks for supporting https://free-slots.games.
“If we had less of a gap with respect to the Premier League leaders and we had a chance to fight for it, it wouldn’t be so tough to be eliminated from the Champions League, but now our aim is to progress from every round,” Mata said in an interview with Cadena Ser radio.
The Spaniard admits that elimination in this round would be disastrous: “It would be a big blow to be eliminated in the last 16.”
This isn’t the only Juan Mata interview that’s getting a lot of traction in the global media today. Comments that the Spaniard made to Mundo Deportivo, a prominent newspaper in his home country, are making international headlines today as well.
When Jose Mourinho was first appointed manager of United in May of 2016, there was naturally a lot of speculation about Mata’s future at the club, given how the midfielder’s career unfolded under the Portugese at Chelsea. Mata wasn’t receiving much playing time at Chelsea, then managed by Mourinho, and was eventually sold by Stamford Bridge to United in January 2014.
It was often assumed that after Mourinho took the reigns at United, Juan Mata would be transferred away. Mata admits that he received “concerned” phone calls from friends and family on the topic. He also admits that he was “hurt” by “rumors” and “lies” that were spread on this topic.
“I faced it naturally,” Mata said.
“It’s true I received calls from concerned friends and family but I knew that I didn’t have any personal problems with Mourinho at Chelsea. What hurt me is that they spread rumors and lies about what did not happen.”
In the time that Mourinho has been in charge, Juan Mata has kept his place in the first team. He’s been a regular, more or less, in the starting XI, and thus proved wrong the people who believed Mourinho’s appointment would result in his benching, or even sending away from Old Trafford.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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