The Red Devils lost 2-3 against Roma in the second leg of the semifinals, but progressed through to the Europa League final with an 8-5 aggregate win.
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Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is undoubtedly delighted with his side reaching their second Europa League final in the space of four years. In 2017, Jose Mourinho-led Manchester United beat Ajax 2-0 to clinch their first title in this competition. That was the last title the club has won. Four years later, Solskjaer has a chance to end the trophy drought and also win his maiden silverware for the club as a manager. They will face Spanish club Villarreal in the final on May 26th.
The Red Devils lost the second leg 3-2 against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday night. Goals from Edin Dzeko, Bryan Cristante and Nicola Zalewski cancelled out an Edinson Cavani brace. However, a superior first-leg victory of 6-2 was enough for United to enter the final 8-5 on aggregate. Happy with progressing to the final, Solskjaer labelled the match a “strange game”.
“It feels good of course. We played one very, very good half at Old Trafford which has brought us through and today we did the job,” Ole said after the match. “I’m disappointed that we lost the game, I never like to lose a game, especially the way we did it, but it was always going to be one of these games that was going to be open.”
“There were chances for both teams, it easily could have been 6-6 or 8-6 for them, so it was a strange game of football. It’s great to be in a final. We’ll forget the second half here when we’re in Gdansk definitely. We made it too open, it was always going to be an open game of course because they had to score, that was going to create chances for us, but we’re through.”
Edinson Cavani and David Degea were the standout performers for the club on the night. The Spanish shot-stopper was at his unbelievable best, saving almost everything thrown at him. With Roma desperate for goals, they threw bodies forward and attacked in numbers, but Degea was upto the task.
At the other end, United found plenty of room behind the Italian team’s defence due to their open attacking style. Cavani was there to pounce on the opportunities. He came up with two beautiful finishes to continue his hot streak after impressing in the first leg as well.
“We kept giving them the ball, we kept losing it in difficult positions but luckily we’ve got one of the best goalkeepers in the world and luckily we have a number nine up front there who wants to score goals. Edi and David, it was two top performances by them,” Ole said.
