Jose Mourinho believes Manchester United’s supporters can help them overcome a difficult build-up to their Europa League last-16 second leg against Rostov.
United exited the FA Cup on Monday night as N’Golo Kante’s strike condemned Mourinho’s men to a 1-0 defeat against the Portuguese’s former club Chelsea, but the scoreline was not the only thing to go against the Reds.
The Football Association has charged United for failing to control their players after Ander Herrera’s first-half sending off, which threw Mourinho’s men off-kilter, and a bad night only got worse as issues with their flight back meant United instead had to battle traffic on the M6, getting back at around 4am.
“We had one gift and we thought one gift was enough,” Mourinho said. “But then we had the second gift and we thought that was too much. And then we had a third gift.
“The first gift was to play Monday night, the second gift was to play with 10 men and then the third gift was to have a promenade on the M6.
“But we are professionals, so the next morning we were here to train.
“Today the same and tomorrow we go with everything we have, and I think the fans will give us this little bit of extra energy.
“So we believe that tomorrow we can cope with the situation and fight to be in the quarter-final.”
Anthony Martial will not be available despite training yesterday.
The 21-year-old was present as the squad prepared for tonight’s game, although he did so away from the main group and has not done enough to convince his boss he can feature.
The Frenchman and England captain Wayne Rooney both missed Monday’s loss through injury and Mourinho confirmed that neither would be considered for selection, although Zlatan Ibrahimovic is available as his current suspension only applies to domestic games.
Rostov arrive at Old Trafford as unfancied Europa League fodder but coach Ivan Daniliants believes his squad are capable of making history.
A week on from a hard-fought 1-1 draw in Russia, the Zholto-Sinie are looking to add United to a list of European scalps which already includes Bayern Munich, Ajax and Anderlecht this term.
“Both clubs have their own history, but we are here to make history tomorrow,” Daniliants said.
“We want to unite tomorrow and to show a decent performance. We trust in our team, we believe in every single player and I am sure that if we do our best the outcome will be positive.”
Rostov are a team without star names, built around collective quality.
The togetherness is highlighted by the fact that key players Aleksandr Gatskan, Timofei Kalachev, Soslan Dzhanaev and Vladimir Granat have travelled to Manchester, despite being ruled out through suspension or injury.
The latter was the only injury sustained by either side during last week’s first leg, despite concerns over the rock-hard, sandy surface.
Mourinho’s desire to have the match called off fell on deaf ears at UEFA, but the Russian Premier League announced on the eve of the second leg that the Olimp-2 surface is unplayable.
“I think every single player of both teams will benefit from using a picture of the higher quality,” Daniliants said of playing on the plush grass of Old Trafford.