Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho isn’t anticipating frequent goal celebrations when his team squares off with Sevilla in the Champions League on Wednesday, saying he expects the match to remain tightly contested from the first minute to the last.
“With Sevilla, I don’t think it’s possible to score many goals,” Mourinho told MUTV, as quoted by Sky Sports. “I think the game is going to be really competitive.
“They can say what they want; they can be nice to us and say we are favourites – that means absolutely nothing.”
The Red Devils will head to the Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan for the first leg of this round of 16 matchup after comfortably defeating Huddersfield Town 2-0 in the FA Cup four days prior.
The Premier League’s second-placed side hasn’t had much trouble finding the back of the net this season – scoring 51 league goals in 27 matches – but Mourinho expects a tough test in a match with high stakes.
“I think I prefer to say they have good players and a good team and a good mentality for the knockout matches,” he said. “Sevilla is a club of cups and now they have the chance to play in the biggest competition of all, so the motivation is obviously even bigger.”
Mourinho’s assessment of Sevilla is accurate, as the club has featured in a number of finals in recent years. The Andalusian side emerged as the victor of the 2013-14, 2014-15, and 2015-16 Europa League competitions, while also earning a spot in this season’s Copa del Rey.
Additionally, the gaffer sees tactical differences between the Spanish outfit and his usual English opponents, which he took time to outline before once again taking a dig at pundits.
“I can see easily now the distances between the wingers and the full-backs are much shorter,” Mourinho said. “The wingers drop back to compact with the full-backs; not like in England.
“In England, some experts that never sit on the bench say wingers shouldn’t defend and the midfield players should only attack. But that’s only in England in this moment, with this generation of experts.”
