Manchester United: Mourinho's verdict as Reds progress

PanARMENIAN.Net - Jose Mourinho praised his Manchester United players for handling the fatigue of a busy period when securing progress to the Europa League quarter-finals with a 1-0 win over FC Rostov, the club's official website says.

The Reds drew 1-1 out in Russia last week and followed that up with a slender but thoroughly-deserved victory at Old Trafford thanks to Juan Mata’s second-half goal.

“I was afraid of extra time and some players were in trouble. I know that I can bring Rashford to the game, but at the same time I am afraid because I have at least Marcos Rojo in big trouble. It was a difficult game. We have lots of enemies. Normally the enemy should be Rostov but we have lots of enemies. It is difficult to play on Monday night with 10 men, it is difficult to play now, it is difficult to play on Sunday at 12 o’clock, so we have lots of enemies. The boys were fantastic. I can imagine some people will say we should play better, we could play better, we should score more goals, we should not have so many difficulties to beat this opponent, but the reality is we have lots of things going against us and we have to fight. The boys are amazing and we will probably lose the game on Sunday but we will try our best," he said.

"Normally the enemies should be Rostov, but we have a lot of enemies," Mourinho told BT Sport.

"It's difficult to play Monday with 10 men (against Chelsea). It's difficult to play now. It's difficult to play 12 o'clock on Sunday (against Middlesbrough). We have a lot of enemies."

Henrikh Mkhitaryan ran through and chipped wide from Mata's pass and might have won a penalty in the 27th minute following a push by Medvedev, but Lithuanian referee Gediminas Mazeika said no.