Europa League Quarter Final
Man United vs FC Copenhagen
Rhein Energie Stadion, Koln
Monday, 10-08-2020 @10pm
The quarter finals of the European competitions begin on Monday, with the unique, one-off UEFA Europa League tournament taking place in Germany.
Manchester United will return to action on Monday, as they take on FC Copenhagen at the RheinEnergieStadion, with a place in the semi-finals on the line.
United have turned their season around in 2020, reaching the semi-finals of both the domestic cup competitions before finishing in the top four in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League.
In the Europa League, the Red Devils have been clinical, comfortably going past every stage so far, beating LASK 7-1 on aggregate in the Round of 16.
Copenhagen, on the other hand, have slogged it out in the Europa League, first finishing second in Group B.
In the knockout rounds, they have needed to mount a comeback each time, beating Celtic and Istanbul Basaksehir to reach the quarter-finals. Now, Stale Solbakken’s charges will hope to continue to push for their first title of the season, having finished runners-up in the Danish Superliga.
United do not have any fresh injury concerns to deal with ahead of his side’s latest fixture in the Europa League. On Monday, the Manchester United manager will be without three first-team players, none of whom will play any part in the remainder of the season.
Luke Shaw, Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe have all suffered season-ending injuries and the trio have been omitted from the updated Europa League squad.
The likes of Ethan Galbraith, Ethan Laird and Teden Mengi are among the academy players who have travelled with the Manchester United squad to Germany.
Sergio Romero has been the preferred choice so far in the Europa League, but Solskjaer’s decision to go with David de Gea in the FA Cup semi-final clash with Chelsea last month could points towards something similar ensuing against Copenhagen as well.
The Danish side has a number of issues hampering their preparations ahead of the Europa League quarter-final tie. On Monday, they will be without as many as four first-team players.
While Michael Santos is suspended, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Nicolaj Thomsen and Viktor Fischer miss out due to injuries. Solbakken has only a limited number of players available to him, unlike Solskjaer and is likely to keep the changes to a minimum.
Manchester United and FC København have only met twice previously, playing one another in the 2006-07 Champions League group stages – the Red Devils won 3-0 at Old Trafford before losing 1-0 in Copenhagen. In 10 previous attempts, FC København’s only victory against English sides in European competition was against Manchester United in November 2006 (D4 L5). They have failed to score in their last four games against English opponents. This is FC København’s first ever European quarter-final appearance, while they are the first Danish side to reach a major UEFA European quarter-final since Brøndby IF in the 1996-97 UEFA Cup. Brøndby IF are also the only Danish side to reach a major European semi-final, achieving that feat in the 1990-91 UEFA Cup.
The other Europa League game on Monday
-Inter Milan vs Bayer Leverkusen @10pm
Europa League fixtures on Tuesday
-Wolves vs Sevilla FC @10pm
-Shakhtar Donetsk vs FC Basel @10pm
