As the UEFA Europa League gets ever closer to its long-awaited final, it’s the battle between Spain and England as Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United side make the trip to Celta Vigo. With two games separating the teams from a place in the final in Sweden, they’ll be looking to gain the advantage in the first-leg in Spain before they take it back to Manchester for the second-leg next Thursday.

STATS

• Celta Vigo snuck past Genk in the quarter-final with a 4-3 aggregate victory after an eventful 3-2 win in the first-leg at home. Celta Vigo are yet to lose at home in the Europa League this season but they have lost twice away with losses against Shakhtar and, fellow semi-finalists, Ajax.
• Manchester United have been very average in Europe this season and this continued in the quarter-final as it took an extra-time Marcus Rashford to see them win 3-2 on aggregate against Anderlecht. Both of their losses in the competition this season have come away (against Feyenoord and Fenerbahce) and they certainly won’t want another away loss.
• After a poor spell with United’s rivals, Liverpool, Iago Aspas is having a brilliant season with Celta Vigo which he has taken into Europe this season. His 5 goals make him Celta’s top goal scorer in the Europa League so far.
• A man who isn’t very used to life outside of the Champions League has thrived in the Europa League this season and that’s Zlatan Ibrahimović. He also has 5 goals so far but will be out for the remainder of Man United’s season. The pressure will fall onto the shoulders of Henrik Mkhitaryan and Marcus Rashford in the semi-final.

HEAD TO HEAD

The two-legged affair in this semi-final will be the first two meetings between Manchester United and Celta Vigo and it will be interesting to see which side will go for the early goal to hopefully get them the victory in their first every fixture against each other.

CELTA VIGO NEWS

A home win and a clean sheet would be perfect for Celta Vigo but it is a huge ask against a very well-organised Mourinho team on a great unbeaten run in the Premier League. With a strong team available for Thursday’s game, they have every chance of getting a decent result in the first-leg. Former United forward, Giuseppe Rossi, will miss the game with a ligament rupture while Carles Planas also misses the game with a knee injury.

Latest matches: Celta de Vigo

30.04.2017	LaLi	Celta de Vigo	Athletic Bilbao	0:3	L
27.04.2017	LaLi	Sevilla FC	Celta de Vigo	2:1	L
23.04.2017	LaLi	Celta de Vigo	Betis Sevilla	0:1	L
20.04.2017	UEFA	KRC Genk	Celta de Vigo	1:1	D
16.04.2017	LaLi	Granada CF	Celta de Vigo	0:3	W

MANCHESTER UNITED NEWS

An away goal would be brilliant for Man United in the first-leg of this semi-final but they’ve definitely struggled to score goals in Europe this season, they’ll be hoping to put an end to that without their main striker, Ibrahimović. The Red Devils have a huge problem with their defensive options as Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo will all miss out while Eric Bailly picked up a slight knock at the weekend, but should be okay to play.

Latest matches: Manchester United

30.04.2017	Prem	Manchester United	Swansea City	1:1	D
27.04.2017	Prem	Manchester City	Manchester United	0:0	D
23.04.2017	Prem	Burnley FC	Manchester United	0:2	W
20.04.2017	UEFA	Manchester United	RSC Anderlecht	2:1	W
16.04.2017	Prem	Manchester United	Chelsea FC	2:0	W

SUMMING UP

With the way Man United have underperformed in recent weeks, Celta Vigo will certainly fancy their chances in this first-leg. Although, even with the benefit of their home fans, they still won’t go into the favourites and it should be United progressing through to the final. Celta Vigo definitely shouldn’t be undervalued and will put up a very valiant fight to get through. A draw is probably the most likely result.