Intro
Manchester United restart their Europa matches on Thursday as they travel to Italy for a neutral site matchup against Real Sociedad. Originally set to be held in Spain, the match was moved to Juventus’ stadium due to the national lockdown in Spain.
Match Build Up
Real Sociedad and United have only met twice previously, doing so in the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League group stage – United won 1-0 at Old Trafford, while it was a goalless draw in Spain.
United are winless in their last nine European matches against Spanish opponents (D3 L6) since a 1-0 win over Celta de Vigo in the 2016/17 UEFA Europa League semi-final.
Real Sociedad have lost four of their last five knockout matches in major UEFA European competition (D1) since winning 2-1 against Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the last 16 in the UEFA Cup in 1998/99.
While United have lost one of their last 16 UEFA Europa League knockout matches (W10 D5), losing in their most recent game against Sevilla in the semi-final last season.
United Team News
There isn’t a lot of team news for this match. Both sides enter the match relatively healthy with only Paul Pogba sidelined with an injury and therefore, we can expect McTominay and Fred to start again in the midfield.
Sociedad did have a minor concern, key man Mikel Oyarzabal was expected to miss the first leg through injury, but the winger made a shock return to the Sociedad team at the weekend and played 79 minutes in the 1-0 victory over Getafe.
Possible United Lineup:
De Gea – Shaw – Maguire – Lindelof – AWB – Fred – McTominay – Rashford – Bruno – Greenwood – Cavani
Are we really getting the first team tonight? And if we do see some of the B team and they play well, is there any chance of them getting a run out in the league?
This match is only important as a test bed for the other competitions!