Fenerbahce vs Manchester United LIVE: Europa League result and final score as Jose Mourinho sent off

Jose Mourinho has faced Manchester United 24 times as a manager, and has only faced Barcelona (31) and Liverpool (27) more.

His record is pretty good, with 10 wins, nine draws and only five defeats across his spells with Porto, Chelsea, Inter, Real Madrid and Tottenham.

He, of course, faced United more often with Chelsea, with 14 meetings across his two spells with the Blues. He only lost one of those games, in 2005-06, and that was when Cheslea won the league anyway.

His victory with Porto at Old Trafford in early 2004, over 20 years ago now, remains iconic, as Mourinho sprinted down the touchline to announce himself to the world.

It’s been 14 years since Manchester United’s last victory in Turkey - a 3-0 victory over Bursaspor in the group stages of the Champions League. They have since faced Galatasaray twice, Fenerbahce and Istanbul Basaksehir without winning.

Last season brought a dramatic 3-3 draw with Galatasaray in United’s shambolic Champions League group stage campaign. Their previous visit was an embarrasing defeat to Buyuksehir under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer four years ago.

United last faced Fenerbahce in the group stages of the 2016/17 Europa League, which actually came under Jose Mourinho. Although United lost 2-1, they were already through and went on to win the tournament that season.

It’s not just Jose Mourinho who Manchester United will be up against tonight. The Fenerbahce team includes former United players in Fred and Sofyan Amrabat.

There are also plenty of former Premier League players, such as Allan Saint-Maximin, Dusan Tadic, Edin Dzeko, Caglar Soyuncu and Cenk Tosun. A real Motley Crew.

It was perhaps the first sign of things to come: failure for Manchester United, frustration for Jose Mourinho. And this was way before the Portuguese actually went to the club. That febrile period from 2016 to 2018 is obviously going to be brought up a lot as Mourinho’s Fenerbahce take on his old club in the Europa League on Thursday, but of more interest is perhaps what happened in May 2013. And, what might have happened.

Jose Mourinho maintains Sir Alex Ferguson has something more precious than his ambassadorial role after Ineos terminated his £2m contract as part of its cost-cutting drive.

Sir Alex has pocketed the annual sum each year since stepping down as manager in 2013, but the move by Ineos, owned by British billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has raised eyebrows.

Amicable talks were held to end the existing deal between the legendary former manager, who will retain a role as a non-executive director, and club officials, but Mourinho, who will face his former club in the Europa League on Thursday, maintains the Scot retains something more important.

With City facing a hearing into over 100 alleged breaches of the Premier League’s financial rules, over a nine-year period that included Jose Mourinho’s spell in charge of United, he could not resist a reference to the 2017-18 season.

Mourinho said when reflecting on his time in Manchester: “We won Europa League, finished second in the Premier League. I think we still have a chance to win that league, because maybe they punish Man City. Maybe we win that league, then they have to pay me the bonus and give me the medal!”

City deny all charges and announced their “surprise” when they were referred to the independent commission last February.

Jose Mourinho joked that he could still win a Premier League title with Manchester United - should rivals Manchester City face retrospective punishment for alleged financial breaches.

Mourinho, now in charge of Fenerbahce, faces his former club in the Europa League on Thursday night and was inevitably asked about his eventful two-and-a-half year spell in charge at Old Trafford during the pre-match press conference in Istanbul.

The Portuguese won the League Cup and Europa League in his first season with United and finished runner-up in the Premier League the year after, although 19 points behind Pep Guardiola’s 100-point champions.

Mourinho, who won three Premier League titles across two spells at Chelsea, would later claim that guiding United to second place in 2017-18 was “one of the best jobs of my career” because of “what was going on behind the scenes” after he was sacked midway through the following season.

Odds

Fenerbahce win 2/1

Draw 35/13

Manchester United win 7/5

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Prediction

Fenerbahce 2-2 Manchester United

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Fenerbahce XI: Livakovic; Djiku, Soyuncu, Becao, Muldur; Amrabat, Fred; Tadic, Szymanski, Saint-Maximin; En-Nesyri.

Manchester United XI: Onana; Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot; Ugarte, Casemiro, Eriksen; Garnacho, Zirkzee, Rashford.

Bruno Fernandes is suspended after his sending off against Porto, while Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire are among those sidelined by injury. Casemiro appeared to suffer a knock at the weekend and may be a doubt.