Manchester United aiming to ‘finish with a trophy’ to make the season ‘great’, says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

It’s a fifth semi-final for Solskjaer but he’s yet to taste victory at that stage

Karl Matchett
Thursday 15 April 2021 17:34 EDT
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(Manchester United via Getty Imag)

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was pleased with his team’s progression to the Europa League semi-finals at the expense of Granada and stated that Manchester United will be looking to go all the way this time around.

Under his guidance, the Red Devils have now made five semi-finals of cup competitions, but he has yet to take the team through to a final.

Earlier this term United lost out to neighbours Man City in the League Cup semis, while last season it was City again in the same competition, Chelsea in the FA Cup and Sevilla in the Europa League.

This time it will be Serie A side AS Roma who present the final hurdle before a showpiece event and the United manager made it clear he wants silverware.

“We’re looking forward to it, we’re in the semis and it feels like a proper European tie,” he said to BT Sport.

“Roma is club with loads of tradition and history but we’ve done well against them before.

“We look forward to them and hope we can get to the final. If we can finish the season with a trophy that’ll be great.”

The regular run of being knocked out at the last-four stage isn’t a mental barrier that Solskjaer is concerned about, highlighting his team’s desire to win every match they play.

That, he said, was apparent in the second leg against Granada; United were already leading by two from the first leg and had no need to chase more goals, but it played to their instincts to attack.

“Apart from the hurt it’s not any issue. We go into every game trying to win. We didn’t need to tonight...[but] we have this attitude of wanting to score.

“I’ve not seen too much of them. I know they had two good games against Ajax, they defend well as Italian teams do and they’ve got [Edin] Dzeko - he’s a dangreous one.”

Before the semi-finals, United return their attentions to domestic matters with a home match against Burnley this weekend.

Solskjaer is expecting to have Marcus Rashford fit to feature after leaving him as an unused, just-in-case substitute against Granada, noting the striker had a “sore foot” which he has been playing with recently.

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