Manchester United to face Real Sociedad in the last 32 of the Europa League

[Damien]

Current leaders of La Liga, we're away in the first leg and will come up against former United player Adnan Januzaj and Man City legend David Silva.

We played against them in the group stage in 2013, when they had Griezmann in their ranks. The only two United players who played in those games that are still in the squad are De Gea and Jones.

 

[DWelbz19]

Probably the hardest team we could’ve got, no?

 

[FrankDrebin]

First meeting between the two sides ?

 

[Josh 76]

Maybe a blessing

 

[20le_Solskjaer]

If we were in the CL and we drew them. We’d be over the moon.

but we’re not

 

[Damien]

First meeting between the two sides ?

We faced them in the Champions League group stage in 2013 (Moyes' season). Won 1:0 at home and drew 0:0 away.

 

[Deery]

That’s us out then, sorry state of affairs when you think like that..

 

[No Love]

Expect them to eliminate us. Some will be happy with that, others less so.

 

[Rado_N]

Is Adnan getting minutes with them? Not been following either him or them

 

[Vidyoyo]

pLaY tHe KiDs!

Good draw, to be honest. Actually will be worth watching.

 

[groovyalbert]

We'll win. It'll be like Celta Vigo a few seasons ago.

 

[Damien]

Is Adnan getting minutes with them? Not been following either him or them

Not played that much for them in the league this season but started their last three Europa League matches which were all draws.

 

[Hansi Fick]

Good team, sure, not to take lightly, of course, but surely you are the favourites.

 

[Rado_N]

Not played that much for them in the league this season but started their last three Europa League matches which were all draws.

Interesting, cheers.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Mikel Oyarzabal

Hopefully we win, but he plays well and we go in for him.

 

[Lash]

I'm excited for this match, San Sebastian is probably my favourite city in the world and keep up with la Real. Tough match for sure, but a great test for us. Shame this is covid times, I would pay a lot of money to get over there!

 

[elnorte]

We'll go through and then lose to a 'worse' team a couple of rounds later.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

Mikel Oyarzabal

Hopefully we win, but he plays well and we go in for him.

He's a left winger right? Incredible the impact he's had without even playing a full 90 minutes.

 

[Pretzels81]

Silva won't even play, probably. Injured everywhere.

We should qualify. Currently (co)leaders of LaLiga, but worse than the current PL's Top6.

 

[DWelbz19]

We'll go through and then lose to a 'worse' team a couple of rounds later.

Very much our MO. A [relatively] convincing away performance, doing enough to scrape by in the home tie.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

He's a left winger right? Incredible the impact he's had without even playing a full 90 minutes.

Left winger but he's left footed... so can play right wing (and often does for Spain)

 

[Superden]

it will be 0-0 at their place, lots of back slapping at a professional job well done. then we'll conceded late on and lose on away goals at home. the memories.

 

[RashyForPM]

Silva won't even play, probably. Injured everywhere.

We should qualify. Currently (co)leaders of LaLiga, but worse than the current PL's Top6.

Leicester, us, Liverpool etc maybe, but they can’t be worse than Southampton. They’re top for a reason.

 

[fergosaurus]

I'm excited for the draw. Much rather Sociedad than some obscure eastern European team. If we win we've eliminated one of the strongest teams and if we lose we'll have less fixture congestion and can focus on the league.

 

[Gasolin]

That's alright for me. If we could keep meeting teams in the major leagues, that would be perfect. The key point is to reduce the travel distance and fatigue.

 

[Turnip]

Play like we did against City, grind a 0-0, then do the same in the replay and when they all fall asleep just sneak the ball into the net. This should be our new tactic. Didn't work against City because of Pep's magic pills keeping them awake.

 

[Hernandez - BFA]

Does IRRRRAAMEEEENDI still play for them?

 

[Grande]

We faced them in the Champions League group stage in 2013 (Moyes' season). Won 1:0 at home and drew 0:0 away.

This version of Real Sociedad is in my view superior to that. They’re a well run, knit together and well coached team. After brushing horns with the big guys for a while last season, slipping a bit towards the end but reaching the cup final and a Europa League place, they lost playmaker Ødegaard and yet leads La Liga this year. They are inexperienced in Europe, but have gotten some decent matching in the group games facing Napoli and AZ. Coach Immanol is in house after going the ranks with youth setup, and the team is based around young talent with work ethic and collective spirit drilled into them, while allowing players freedom to express themselves. Ødegaard was helped by this, and players like Mikel Oyarzabal, Januzaj, David Silva and Alexander Isak are interesting to follow in that setup.

Fingers crossed their form has dipped when we meet them, otherwise it’s going to be a really tough nut to crack, and an interesting fixture.

 

[Gasolin]

Play like we did against City, grind a 0-0, then do the same in the replay and when they all fall asleep just sneak the ball into the net. This should be our new tactic. Didn't work against City because of Pep's magic pills keeping them awake.

Do they press like City? Because either way, if we find our final third pass back, we will score that time. We got out of City's press by playing Pogba and Bruno on the side during the transition and when one was coming to help, the other one became central. We had some beautiful sequences to get out and we f***** up the last pass only. If they press us and we are less error prone, I don't think we will struggle too much, even away.

But if they don't press, then maybe the game is easier for us physically speaking.

 

[BeforeKeanetherewasRobson]

First meeting between the two sides ?

Thought we'd played them before?

 

[DRM]

meh

 

[ClaytonBlackmoorLeftPeg]

I'm excited for the draw. Much rather Sociedad than some obscure eastern European team. If we win we've eliminated one of the strongest teams and if we lose we'll have less fixture congestion and can focus on the league.

true. We don’t want some random Russian team that’s 12k miles away.

 

[VivaRonaldo85]

Any team which is top of La Liga after 13 games must be a very good side. Can't see how we could have got a tougher draw. Oh well, we've only got ourselves to blame for even being in this lousy competition.

 

[Bwuk]

Was hoping we’d get Rangers

 

[jamesjimmybyrondean]

Some of the people saying we should get knocked out will be the first complaining if we lose

 

[DRM]

Is this the team that had the likes of Diego Tristan, Roy makaay back in the day??

 

[Red Star One]

One of the toughest draws we could have gotten. We’ll be slight favorites but won’t surprise me if we go out on a goal difference or so.

 

[Gasolin]

Some of the people saying we should get knocked out will be the first complaining if we lose

Exactly, and we take all competitions seriously. It's the nature of the club, and the nature of Ole. We will just have to rotate well.

 

[Oldtraffordboy]

Nice to have a decent game to look forward to.

Who knows where we'll be in Feb so difficult to call

 

[OleTheGreat]

This Sociedad team are tough opponents for us. Could be a very tough game but I hope we play well and defeat them.