Manchester United will be without Edinson Cavani and Anthony Martial for the crunch Champions League clash at RB Leipzig.
After losing 3-1 at home to Paris St Germain last week, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side head into the final Group H level on nine points with the perennial French champions and Tuesday’s opponents.
United will qualify if they avoid defeat to Leipzig, where the Red Devils will be without attackers Cavani and Martial after the pair picked up knocks in Saturday’s 3-1 comeback win at West Ham.
🚨 The boss has named the 2️⃣3️⃣ Reds who will travel to Germany for tomorrow's decider ⤵️#MUFC#UCL— Manchester United (@ManUtd) December 7, 2020
“David (De Gea) is back in travelling, Luke (Shaw) is travelling,” said Solskjaer, who is without Fred through suspension.
“Edinson and Anthony, they’ve only minor niggles but they won’t be making the trip.
“You get to the last game of the group stage and you’re in the next round if you go and win that game or you get a draw so it’s an important game. Of course it is.”
There is a lot of pressure on United heading into Tuesday’s match, but Solskjaer is confident the players will rise to the occasion.
“Knockout games or games like this that mean you can go through or not are big,” the United boss said.
“The players are here, they are Man United players, because they have qualities that we’ve looked for and I’m sure that tomorrow night will prove that’s the reason why they’re here, they will show it.
“I think the character of the group is getting better and better and we’re looking forward to the game.
“It’s something that we want, games like this. It’s a tradition for Man United – we never make it easy for ourselves.
“Of course we look at the games, especially the away game against Istanbul (Basaksehir) that we could have got three points, but that’s just the way we do things.
“We do make it hard for ourselves. That’s been ever since I played and that’s a long, long time ago.”
United captain Harry Maguire echoed his manager’s sentiments, pointing to July’s crucial win at Leicester that sealed qualification for this Champions League campaign.
“First and foremost, I joined this club to play in the biggest games possible,” the world’s most expensive defender said.
“Your big players step up in the most pressured games, so for sure I think that’s a statement which shows over the years, that the big players step up in the big games.
“It’s a bit similar to the game at Leicester last year where we had to get a result to reach the Champions League and we managed to do that, so we’ll take confidence from that.
“But we feel ready, we feel prepared and we’re looking forward to it.”
