Mourinho gives his reaction to Man Utd’s CL elimination
Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho says Manchester United will be one of the favourites to win the Europa League this season.
Mourinho’s former club drop into the secondary European competition after they were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday with a 3-2 defeat at RB Leipzig.
United won the Europa League in 2016 under Mourinho, who will be looking to guide his current club Spurs to the top of the standings in Thursday’s Group J decider.
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“Of course, now Manchester United become one of the top favourites to win the competition. The teams that drop down are always strong teams, teams that normally don’t belong to that level of the Europa League competition.
“Manchester United are one of the top teams. The group was very hard, PSG, Manchester and Leipzig, very hard. We all knew it was not going to be easy for any one of them and we all knew from that group a top team would drop into the Europa League.”
Real Madrid could also drop into the competition’s knock-out stages after the final night of their Champions League group, while Ajax could also join.
Mourinho admits that the quality of the tournament is enhanced by Champions League teams entering after Christmas, but questions the sporting integrity of it.
“It’s a point of principle, and if it happened to my team, I would feel exactly the same,” he said. “It is the way it is and honestly it brings more quality to the competition.
“We cannot forget that, when you have eight new teams in the competition and eight teams that belong to another level, and they drop to the Europa League of course the level of the competition is going to improve.
“No doubt the quality improves, the intensity improves and it’s a good thing for the competition. But from the sports point of view is when I think it’s not fair that a team that doesn’t succeed in one competition drops to another.
“It’s the same thing as if you imagine the third team in the Europa League now there is another competition and third in Europa League instead of finishing goes into the third competition in the hierarchy in European football.
“It’s just a principle in football when if for some reason we don’t succeed unlucky, next season. But it’s the way it is and it’s not a problem for me.”
