Manchester United fans are reeling after watching their team crash out of the Europa League on Sunday evening.The Red Devils slumped to a 2-1 defeat at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne, despite taking an early lead.Bruno Fernandes scored United’s 22nd penalty of the season in the ninth minute, but goals from Suso and Luuk de Jong sent the Spaniards through to Friday’s final.The result was a particularly bitter pill to swallow for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, whose side created more opportunities to win the semi-final tie.But Sevilla took their chances and will now face either Inter Milan or Shakhtar Donetsk in Friday’s final.While Solskjaer has managed to get supporters believing in him again over the course of 2020, #OleOut was one of the top trends on social media following Sunday’s defeat.
Meanwhile, a clip of Jose Mourinho from March 2018 is going viral on Twitter.The video titled ‘Mourinho is never wrong…’ shows the Portuguese coach ranting in the aftermath of United’s Champions League exit at the hands of Sevilla two years ago.Watch the clip here…
“We went out to a side that’s more successful than Manchester United in last seven years in Europe,” Mourinho said at the time, per the Independent. “We went out to a side that has a huge tradition in knockout competitions, a side in the Spanish Cup final.
“We are out to a team that knocked out Atletico Madrid in two legs. We are knocked out to a team that is brilliant in their approach for many years, with their scouting system, the way they invest with every Euro they have.
“They’re a team with a great deal of experience at the highest level, playing every week against Real Madrid, Valencia, Atletico, Barcelona, the best players.”
He continued: “Do you think they didn’t have any players who could play direct in my team?
“I cannot name them. If I name them their agents will jump with happiness and they will say: ‘Tag, tag, price’, this and that. In Sevilla, there are many players who would play in my team.”
Mourinho added: “The fans, they read what people write, they listen what people say and the people that write,” he said. “The people that say are people with a lot of ideas and I used to call them idealists or idiots – they can be both.
“In my dictionary, the dictionary of life, a person with a lot of ideas can be an ideologist or an idiot. The people, they listen to the ideologists and they also listen to the idiots. That’s life.”
Mourinho certainly regarded Sevilla as more of a threat to United than some journalists and fans in 2018.
And perhaps Sevilla were also underestimated this time around, despite their remarkable record in the Europa League.
That said, it remains the case that United bosses had little choice but to sack Mourinho in December 2018 after the revered coach’s relationship with various members of the playing squad was left beyond repair.