Both Manchester clubs have now slipped into the Europa League (City 5/1f Outright Winners) after their failure to qualify for the last 16 of the Champions League. The pair now head the market, but just how seriously will they take the competition?
They say that money talks in football and, generally, that is the case, as the ‘haves’ more often than not occupy the top places in the league and the ‘have-nots’ struggle to compete.
But try telling that to Basel, who defied the odds to dump Manchester United out of Europe’s elite club competition and resigned them to life in the Europa League in the New Year.
United are the first club that has previously reached the final to be knocked out in the group stage and it just the third time in 17 attempts that Sir Alex Ferguson’s side has failed to reach the knockout stage.
The fall-out has already begun with Patrice Evra labelling the exit as “embarrassing” and “a catastrophe” and it remains to be seen just what sort of side Fergie actually fields when United begin their Europa League campaign.
There are still some big clubs in the second-tier tournament, with Valencia, Porto and Ajax also making an early Champions League exit, while Athletic Bilbao, Atletico Madrid and Udinese look set to be in the draw for the next stage.
Ferguson will doubtless make all the right noises and pledge to put out a strong side in each match but, with Manchester City ( 4/7 Premier League Outright) currently topping the Premier League and challenging United’s domestic dominance, the fiery Scot will surely have one eye on Premier League matters when he next hands in a European team sheet.
But it could be that the Europa League is United’s best chance of silverware this term, as they have hardly pulled up any trees in the English top-flight and have been hanging onto City’s coattails all season with several 1-0 victories.
Their lack of a creative midfielder has haunted them right from the start of the season and they finally got found out in Switzerland, and the boss may well be forced to dip into the transfer market in January to try and address the problem or run the risk of the season tailing away over the next few months.
City will have also harboured ambitions of winning the Champions League this time with the money that has been spent on assembling their talented squad, but it has it be remembered that it was their first foray into the competition and they are still gelling as a unit.
It is true that they look world beaters in the Premier League but that might just add fuel to the argument that the English game is not as strong as we are all led to believe.
City finally won a trophy when lifting the FA Cup last season and any silverware will be welcomed at Eastlands, and it just might be that boss Roberto Mancini uses the Europa League as a stepping stone for nest season’s assault on the Champions League.
Both City and United have the squad to cope with European football throughout the season, but it would surprise nobody to see a few fringe players appear as the tournament progresses.
Manchester was rocked on Wednesday with the twin failures, but the scene is now set for the Premier League rivals to meet in Bucharest for the final on May 9. Whether they actually want to is open to debate.
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