Manchester United secured their ticket into the quarter-finals of the Europa League after having defeated FC Rostov.
The Premier League club is scheduled to face-off with Anderlecht on April 13 for Game 1 of these upcoming quarter-final stages.
According to the Manchester United icon Sir. Alex Ferguson believes that the Premier League club should focus on winning the Europa League for the fact that it can allow them to qualify and compete in the UEFA Champions League of the next season.
“The thing is, we’ve never won the Europa League. We never won the UEFA Cup, what it used to be and we’ve got a great draw. I’m not saying it’s a certainty, but they’ve got a great chance. It’s still a European trophy and if you win it, you get into the Champions League. The incentive is greater to do that.”Sir. Alex Ferguson said as he suggested to Jose Mourinho and his squad to focus on the Europa League and to make it their priority.
Another possible way that Manchester United can qualify for the upcoming season of the UEFA Champions League is by snatching a top 5 spot in the Premier League but this path is probably the more difficult one as Jose Mourinho and his squad will have to consistently win match and earn points while the UEFA Europa League can be defined by far fewer amount of games.
The last time that Manchester United won the Champions League was back during the season of 2007-08 when they overcame Chelsea in an intense penalty session.
Even though it’s been over 9 years since Manchester United won the prestigious European title, it’s probably not in their list of priorities as the Premier League club has recently been switching managers and struggling to secure a top 3 spot in the top tier English League.
During the 2013-14 season, United finished in the 7th spot, in the 2014-15 season United snapped the 4th position and in the 2015-16 season, United had to settle with the 5th position.
It’s clear that Manchester United aren’t going through the best of times and trying to qualify as well as compete in the UEFA Champions League is not what they should be focusing on.