Amorim insists Europa League run can crown United’s tumultuous year

Manchester United head coach Ruben Amorim admitted that, if his side convert their 3-0 first-leg advantage over Athletic Club on Thursday, they may go down as “the worst Premier League team ever to win a European trophy.” United have lost 16 league matches and sit 15th with just 39 points and a −9 goal difference—both their poorest tallies at this stage since the top flight was re-branded in 1992.

Yet history is firmly on the Reds’ side: only once in UEFA competition has a team squandered a three-goal away lead, and United themselves have fallen just once in their last 30 Europa League games at Old Trafford. Even more telling, Amorim’s men are the tournament’s leading scorers with 31 goals—an average of 2.4 per game—while conceding only 17.

The Portuguese coach confirmed that Matthijs de Ligt will miss the return leg after limping off against Brentford, joining long-term absentees Lisandro Martínez, Diogo Dalot and Joshua Zirkzee.

Teenage winger Alejandro Garnacho, involved in 16 goals this season, echoed his manager’s realism: “We’ll treat it as 0-0; winning the Europa League puts us back in the Champions League and resets our mentality.”

Captain Bruno Fernandes remains central to those hopes. The playmaker has already amassed 19 goals and 18 assists in 52 appearances, and Amorim dismissed fresh talk of a Saudi move, stressing the club “need top players” to rebuild next term.

United last lifted a European trophy in 2017; another would soften a torrid domestic campaign and give Amorim the unique distinction of winning continental silverware in his first Old Trafford season.

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