Mourinho Says He’ll Rest Players Ahead of Europa League Final

Manchester United manager, Jose Mourinho, has said that he will try to rest his players as much as possible over the course of the next few weeks, ahead of their Europa League final on May 24th.

United narrowly made it into the final of the Europa League after drawing with Celta Vigo 1-1 last night, during their semi-final match at Old Trafford.

The draw gave the Red Devils a spot in the final through a 2-1 aggregate.

United will now face-off against Ajax in the final in Stockholm.

However, where Ajax will have plenty of time to rest players and prepare for the Europa League final, Mourinho’s men won’t be as lucky as they still have three English Premier League games to play before they meet with Ajax

Ajax, on the other hand, will finish their Premier League season on Sunday.

“Obviously now Ajax think about the final…Their league finishes on Sunday and they will have 12 days to prepare for the final and we have three Premier League matches to play,” Mourinho told reporters after last night’s match.

Mourinho also said that he will make a lot of changes to ensure that his players get some rest and that they are in good shape for the final.

“Hopefully Crystal Palace [their final EPL opponents] don’t need the last game, because in the last game I’m going to make a lot of changes and nobody can blame us because we have a final two days later,” he said.

Winning the Europa League will mean that United will score a spot in the coveted Champions League; something they will likely not be able to achieve through the English Premier League.

United is currently fifth on the EPL log, four points behind Manchester City.