Lyon vs Man Utd LIVE: Ruben Amorim’s males head to France for Europa League quarter-final

This has been a rotten season for Manchester United but there is still hope that it can be salvaged.

They need to win the Europa League which will put them in the Champions League next year as well as provide more options to strengthen the squad during the summer.

That goal starts in France tonight where they’ll need to keep Lyon at bay and hope to inflict a defeat on the Ligue 1 side.

Lyon’s Rayan Cherki has assisted eight goals in the Europa League this season, a joint record by a player in a season along with Atletico de Madrid’s Diego in 2011-12.

Additionally, only Dries Mertens (39) has created more chances than Cherki (38) this season, with only two players creating 40+ chances in one season: Kevin De Bruyne in 2014-15 for Wolfsburg (52) and Hakim Ziyech in 2016-17 for Ajax (40).

Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes has been involved in 41 goals in the Europa League, the most of any player in the competition’s history (24 goals, 17 assists).

He also has the most goals and assists in the knockout stages (16 goals, 11 assists), while his 11 assists are the joint most by a player in the knockouts, along with former teammate Juan Mata.

Lyon manager Paulo Fonseca will become the fifth manager to take charge of 50+ Europa League games after Unai Emery (93), Jorge Jesus (68), Jose Mourinho (58) and Jindrich Trpisovsky (52).

Three of the previous four have suffered defeat in their 50th game with Emery the exception in the 2015 final with Sevilla.

Expressing his disappointment, the pundit said at the end of the game: “It looks like it’s Sunday afternoon and they’re going to go for a roast dinner together now.”

Amorim jokingly responded: “I understand that Gary Neville is critical about everything, so I understand that part.

“But then I understand that we are not fighting – we are in the moment that we are doing the worst season in history.”

Gary Neville has hit out at the “robotic” nature of modern football after being left disappointed by a dour draw in the Manchester derby.

“I don’t think there was one player who walked off that pitch disappointed about drawing 0-0, from either side,” Neville said. “They all walked off sort of thinking, ‘We’re OK here, got away without making a mistake’. It was that type of game.

“The best Man City and Man United teams would be very disappointed with the way they’ve approached the end of that game. It looks like it’s Sunday afternoon and they’re going to go for a roast dinner together now. They’re micromanaged to an inch of their lives, so robotic, and it’s symptomatic of a lot of games that we’re watching nowadays.

“I’m disappointed. It’s a Manchester derby. It should have more blood, thunder, and risk and courage involved in playing the game and winning the game than that.”

Manchester United haven’t lost the first leg of any of their last 11 major knockout ties (five wins, six draws).

The last time they did so was a 1-0 home defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League in April 2019.

Each of their last three away first leg matches have been drawn.

Man Utd have lost just one of their last 21 Europa League matches (14 wins, six draws), losing 3-0 away to Sevilla in April 2023.

That defeat also remains the only time in those 21 games they have failed to score.

Lyon’s 4-0 win over FCSB in the second leg of the last 16 was their biggest win in Europe since beating Apollon Limassol 4-0 in November 2017.

They’ve scored 23 goals in this season’s Europa League, only scoring more in two major European campaigns – 29 in 2004-05 and 28 in 2016-17.

Manchester United’s two away visits to Lyon have both been in the Champions League and on both occasions they came from behind to draw, from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 in September 2004 and 1-0 down to draw 1-1 in February 2008.