Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wearing a Europa League lanyard

Confirmed: United's line-up to face LASK

Wednesday 05 August 2020 18:45

Manchester United's team to take on LASK in the UEFA Europa League at Old Trafford this evening has been announced.

Here's the side Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has selected as the Reds, wearing the new 2020/21 adidas home kit for the first time, look to book a place in the quarter-finals:

United: Romero; Fosu-Mensah, Bailly, Maguire (c), Williams; McTominay, Fred; Mata, Lingard, James; Ighalo.

Substitutes: Grant, Wan-Bissaka, Mengi, Pogba, Matic, Garner, Andreas, Fernandes, Martial, Rashford, Greenwood, Chong.

Solskjaer has gone back in time to March for his team, with nine players retained from the 5-0 first-leg win in Austria. Luke Shaw, who is injured, and Bruno Fernandes, who is on the bench for this evening, are the only men missing from the XI who lined up in the Linzer Stadion for our last match before lockdown and our first behind closed doors due to the coronavirus pandemic.


This means Ole has made nine changes from the United side that beat Leicester City on the final day of the Premier League campaign on 26 July to secure third place and a coveted Champions League spot for next season. Reds captain Harry Maguire and Brandon Williams are the two players in the side against Lask who also started against the Foxes.

Odion Ighalo scored United's Goal of the Month to open the team's account in Austria and although he has only started one game since, against Norwich City in the FA Cup, he also netted then at Carrow Road.

Solskjaer also has goalscoring insurance on the bench tonight in the form of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial and Mason Greenwood, with the latter netting in the LASK away leg when he came on as a substitute.
Solskjaer told BT Sport in his pre-match interview: "There are only two changes from the first leg, and one is forced because Luke is injured. Bruno's rested and Jesse's in and hopefully we can have a good performance.

"Everyone [in the squad] knows they are valuable for us and we need some good performances here which make the players feel they can play all the games in this tournament."

The plethora of substitutes include one potential debutant, defender Teden Mengi, and his Under-23s team-mate James Garner, who has made seven senior appearances so far.

"They've trained with us and shown what they're capable of doing," said Ole. "Let's get a good start in the game and see if they can come on and show us what they can do tonight."
Solskjaer: We want to do this together Video

Solskjaer: We want to do this together

The manager has challenged his players to wrap up the tie and stake a claim for the mini-tournament in Germany…

LASK have five survivors in their Old Trafford line-up from the XI beaten at home. The heavy defeat to the Reds began a slide and an end to the fairytale the club had enjoyed. They were leading the Austrian league in February but when their season began in June they were deducted 12 points, having broken contact rules imposed in training due to Covid-19.

They then lost a string of matches and nosedived from a six-point lead at the top to fourth place. Their boss against the Reds in March, Valerien Ismael, was sacked and the former Austria Women’s coach Dominik Thalhammer was appointed.

LASK:
Schlager; Andrade, Trauner, Wiesinger; Renner, Michorl, Holland, Ranftl; Balic, Raguz, Frieser.

Substitutes: Lawal (GK), Gebauer (GK), Filipovic, Reiter, Ramsebner, V. Muller, Wostry, Haudum, Sabitzer, Celic.

Kick-off at Old Trafford is scheduled for 20:00 BST and you can follow live updates in the Official App and ManUtd.com's Match Centre.

Get behind the team as the Reds go marching on! Our new adidas home kit for 2020/21 is on sale now.

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