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Man Utd Should Comfortably Advance Past Roma With 4 Goal Cushion

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Man Utd face Roma with a 6-2 aggregate lead tonight in the Europa League Semifinals. Man Utd took care of business in the first leg of the tie setting up this huge aggregate lead in Rome tonight.

Man Utd had one of their best performances of the season and got a week off because of the protest on Sunday that spilled over onto the pitch. The protests led to the game against Liverpool being called off.

So United should be fresh and ready to see out any danger that Roma has to offer.

Related: Man Utd v Roma Preview

Roma

After the beating from United, Roma headed to Sampdoria in a league match. Again, Roma were outclassed losing 2-0 on the day. Claudio Ranieri’s club was able to finish their chances and see off Roma.

Roma have only won two game since March, they beat Bologna and Ajax in back-to-back games, since then its been poor, four defeats and two draws has Roma limping to the finish line.

The limp has spurred Roma into announcing that Jose Mourinho will be their manager next season. The former Man Utd boss was recently let go as manager by Tottenham.

Man Utd Press Conference and Team News

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would probably not like the way his team got an extra few days off but they did. United will now have to play three games in five days because of the re-schedule of the Liverpool game, stating on Sunday.

Solskjaer advocated for peace after the protests during the press conference and hopes that team winning trophies could ease the tensions with the fans.

As I mentioned in other previews United are getting their fitness levels back, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford and Edison Cavani are getting their fitness levels back and it has been a huge boost for the club at the end of the season.

“We brought some young staff in, we are working on robustness, resilience, being able to play 50 games for Man Utd. A winning Man Utd team has players who can play 45-50 games at high standard,” said Solskjaer about the expected fitness levels at United.

United should reach the final, SHOULD! Roma probably will not lay over and might fight hard especially early in the game to get a goal or two, it is United’s game to lose.

Man Utd v Roma Preview: Roma Insight, Ole’s Comments Provoke Roma Fans and Team News

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Man Utd will host Roma in the first leg of the Europa League Semifinals tomorrow evening. Man Utd would rather be participating in the Champions League Semifinals but this a big opportunity against a historic club.

Roma are not the Roma team from a few years ago that was challenging for Serie A titles and knocking Barcelona out of the Champions League. Roma currently sit 7th in Serie A and lost to Cagliari this weekend.

The days of De Rossi and Totti are long gone. Two former Man Utd players currently play for Roma, Chris Smalling and Henrikh Mkhitaryan. Jordan Veretout had a stint in the Premier League and Edin Dzeko played for rivals Man City.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was criticized by Roma fans for ‘disrespecting’ their club, Solskjaer responded at the press conference to those claims.

“That was straight after the game and, with all the games we’ve had, I was just relieved that we had gone through. Of course, I’ve watched them but I hadn’t analyzed them and I hadn’t seen them in depth to give them enough respect probably.”

Maybe the Roma fans are a bit insecure about their team. Besides the aging stars that I have mentioned, Roma has a lot of players in their mid to lower 20’s that are not really stepping up to the club’s former level.

Roma did get past a solid Ajax side 3-2 on aggregate in the quarterfinals of the Europa League but have only won a single league game in their last seven league games.

The last time Roma was this poor in the league was the 2011-2012 season where they finished 7th. The last two seasons saw Roma finish 5th and 6th.

Roma could do no worse than 8th this season. Sassuolo is currently 8th and three points behind the Romans, after that Sampdoria sit on 42 points at 9th. Milan and Juventus currently sit at 4th and 5th with a 11 point cushion over Roma.

Roma’s poor form in the league has probably condemned them to another season of Europa League unless they were to win the Europa League, they have no shot of qualifying for Champions League.

Luke Shaw is Ready for Man Utd Semifinals Chance

Luke Shaw joined Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the press conference and gave his thoughts on the upcoming match. Luke Shaw has not featured in a cup final during his time at Old Trafford and he is ready for that chance.

“Of course personally for me its massive motivation, I have been quite unfortunate to not be involved in the semis or finals, so of course I am really looking forward to tomorrow night. From a team point of view it’s very important, in the past we have missed out on a few finals.”

“No semifinal is easy, there are always tough games, we have just missed out on a few. We had a lot of disappointment from that, we can use that as motivation.”

Man Utd Team News

Ole joked about Luke Shaw inserting himself in the Man Utd starting XI for the first leg when asked about not featuring in big games like this, it will be interesting to see if Shaw starts because Alex Telles has featured a lot in the Europa League at left back.

Both Eric Bailly and Marcus Rashford will be available according to Solskjaer. Bailly was recovering from Covid and Rashford has had a lingering foot problem.

“Theyโ€™re all fit and available, we didnโ€™t lose anyone from the last game, which was good. It was a hard-fought game of course against Leeds, high intensity. Weโ€™re ready and weโ€™ve had good preparation for the rest of the season.”

Man Utd will have a fully fit squad for the first time in a while this season, obviously minus Anthony Martial, who looks out for the rest of the season.

Ole has a lot of options against Roma, Man Utd look set to finish second in the league, barring a catastrophic collapse in the league, Man Utd will finish in the top four.