MANCHESTER UNITED

League position: 2nd
Head coach: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Europa League top-scorer: Bruno Fernandes (3)

RECENT FORM

Man Utd: W W W W D
Roma: W D L D L

Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Leeds snapped United’s five-game winning streak in all competitions and allowed city rivals Manchester City to move closer to the Premier League title, but Solskjaer’s men are well placed to finish in the top two for the first time since 2017-18.

The hosts are unbeaten in the UEL since dropping down from the Champions League group stage (W4, D2), although they have only one home win in the competition - the 2-0 victory over Granada in the quarter-finals.

With one win in their last five in all comps, Roma’s current record is in contrast to that of their English counterparts.

They have, however, been in stunning European form this term (P12, W9, D2, L1), with their sole defeat coming in the Group A dead rubber at CSKA Sofia.

The Giallorossi have also won each of their three away games in the knockouts thus far (2-0 vs Braga, 2-1 vs Shakhtar Donetsk, 2-1 vs Ajax).

DANGER MAN
Bruno Fernandes

The Portuguese midfielder has been revelatory since joining United from Sporting Lisbon in January 2020 and is the club’s top scorer in all competitions this season with 24 goals in 51 appearances.

That includes three UEL strikes in six games from attacking midfield and the home side will be looking to their talisman to raise his and his teammates’ performances when the Giallorossi come to town on Thursday.

Having started on the bench against Leeds at the weekend, former Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba should be reunited with Fernandes in the starting XI which would allow both to flit along the front line at will.

The likes of Edinson Cavani and Marcus Rashford also pose a real threat going forward but if Roma can stop Fernandes, their chances of stopping United as a whole immediately improve considerably.

MATCH STATS

This will be the seventh meeting between these two sides in European competitions, but the first in the Europa League.

Roma were victorious in the first ever fixture with United in the 2006-07 edition of the Champions League as Rodrigo Taddei and Mirko Vucinic goals either side of a Wayne Rooney strike sealed a 2-1 win at the Olimpico.

They haven’t won since against United, however, and Roma have lost on each of their three previous trips to Old Trafford.

Roma do have five wins from six since the group stages, though, and the last time the Giallorossi managed as many wins in a single UEFA Cup/Europa League campaign was in 1990-91 (7) - the year they reached the final.

Meanwhile, United’s Premier League rivals Arsenal are the only side to have scored more goals (32) than Roma (26) in this year’s competition.

PLAYER STATS

• Fernandes has been involved in more goals than any other player (17 goals, nine assists) since making his UEL debut in February 2018.
  
• Borja Mayoral (seven goals, two assists) needs just one more assist or goal to become only the second Roma player to have a hand in 10 or more goals in a single season of a major European competition since Edin Dzeko in 2017-18.
  
• Mayoral’s seven goals in the UEL in 2020-21 means the Spaniard sits level with Pizzi (Benfica) and Yusuf Yazicı (Lille) as the tournament’s top scorers.
  
• Dzeko has scored five goals in his previous four appearances against United at Old Trafford, including a brace in each of his last two games with Manchester City (in October 2011 and March 2014).
  
• Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Chris Smalling both picked up Europa League winners’ medals as Manchester United players in 2016-17.

WHAT THEY SAID

“I've not seen too much of Roma. I knew they played two good games against Ajax. They defend well, as Italian teams always do. We all know Edin Dzeko, so every ball into the box is a dangerous one.

“We are looking forward to it. We're in the semis. It feels like a proper European tie because Roma is a club with lots of history. We've done well against Italian sides before.”

- United coach Solskjaer, speaking when the tie was confirmed