Plenty of Manchester United news this week, as they head to Celta Vigo for the away leg of their UEFA Europa League semifinal tie. We start with all the injuries of course, and Ashley Young discussed that with the club’s official website.
On another note Celta Vigo and former Manchester City striker John Guidetti has thrown some shade an United. He’s looking to “keep Manchester blue” so to speak.
Here is the link to the entire injury report.
Elsewhere, both Zlatan Ibrahimovic and his agent Mino Raiola provided an update on the knee surgery that Swedish the striker underwent.
In terms of returnees, Paul Pogba is the headliner, and he is expected back. Also, Juan Mata should start on Thursday, but United have lost Marcos Rojo, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Timothy Fosu-Mensah for the season. United saw both Eric Bailly and Luke Shaw suffer injuries on Sunday, while they are still unsure about the status Chris Smalling and Phil Jones (long term absentees) for the Europa semi.
It was later learned that Shaw is lost for the entire season, a fate that also befell him in 2015-16.
The good news is that Pogba, Smalling, Jones, Bailly all returned to training today, and were hence named to the traveling squad. It is expected that Bailly and Pogba will both start, but likely not the other two. Marouane Fellaini’s suspension only applies to domestic competition so he is available.
Without further ado, here is The Sports Bank’s MUFC starting XI prediction for the Europa League semi-final.
Attack: Marcus Rashford
Attacking Midfield: Anthony Martial, Paul Pogba, Juan Mata
Midfield: Michael Carrick, Ander Herrera
Defense: Matteo Darmian, Daley Blind, Eric Bailly, Antonio Valencia
Goalkeeper: David de Gea
Odds via Sky Bet:
United- 6/4, Draw- 11/5, Celta Vigo 15/8
Prediction: United 1, Celta Vigo 1
Even with this mash unit of a team in place, I fully expect United to grind out a result, get a draw here on the road, and then get one goal advantage during the home leg, thus sealing their path to through to the Europa Semi-final.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, partnered with FOX Sports Engage Network. and News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes to WGN CLTV and KOZN.
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