Mourinho can deepen United’s woes …in today’s EUROPA League clash
Jose Mourinho will renew acquaintances with Manchester United today when his Fenerbahce outfit welcome the Red Devils to the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium for a Europa League clash.
The two teams meet for the first time since November 2016 when Mourinho was in charge of Man United and suffered a 2-1 away defeat to the Turkish giants in the Europa League group stage.
After hitting out at sections of the media for “creating stories and fairytales” about his future as Man United manager, Erik ten Hag steered the Red Devils to a much-needed 2-1 home victory against Brentford in the Premier League last weekend, ending a five-game winless run.
Man United will shift their focus to the Europa League and will endeavour to claim their first win in this season’s competition having drawn their opening two matches against FC Twente and Porto, rescuing a point in a thrilling 3-3 draw with the latter three weeks ago.
Man United have had little success on the continent in recent years, as they have won only one of their last 10 European matches (D4 L5) and have failed to win any of their last five, last enduring a longer run without victory between 1980 and 1983 (six).
Since taking the reins of Fenerbahce in June, Mourinho has won eight, drawn four and lost just two of his opening 14 games across all competitions, and his team enter today’s contest having not lost any of their last four matches.
Fenerbahce, who reached the Conference League quarter-finals last season, have made a solid start to their Europa League campaign this term, collecting four points from their opening two games after following up a 2-1 win over Union SG with a 1-1 draw with FC Twente.
The Yellow Canaries will fancy their chances of success in this game as they boast a seven-game unbeaten home run in the Europa League (W4 D3) and have won their last two home encounters with Man United, although Mourinho has only come out on top in two of his last 17 games against teams he has previously managed (D4 L11) one of those wins, however, was a 6-1 triumph at Man United in charge of Tottenham Hotspur in October 2020.—Sportsmole
