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GDANK. — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says a Manchester United win over Villarreal in the Europa League final tonight could be a “stepping stone for a big future”.
United face Villarreal in Gdansk, Poland, tonight at 9pm.
Solskjaer, a Champions League winner with United as a player, has yet to win a trophy since taking charge of the club in 2018-19.
“This is a team that we’ve rebuilt in the last few years, hopefully this is the start of something more,” he said.
United have not won a major trophy for four years, but Solskjaer said he was “quietly confident” of beating Villarreal, who finished seventh in Spain’s La Liga in 2020-21.
“This is the best club in the world,” he added.
“That’s the pleasure and the pressure of Manchester United. That’s something the players are ready for. They wouldn’t have signed here if they weren’t top players.
“These are big nights for us. It might be the stepping stone for a big future.
“This group of players has been working for a year-and-a-half together. The next step for them is to enjoy a game like this — I’ve seen something growing inside of the players.”
Fernandes says he is “honoured to be compared” with club legend Eric Cantona and is embracing that “good pressure” before Wednesday’s Europa League final.
Cantona’s arrival from Leeds in 1992 is regarded as the catalyst for United to end their 26-year wait for a league title and embark on their era of dominance under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Fernandes’ efforts have helped United secure a top-three place in successive seasons for the first time since Ferguson retired in 2013.
They can win their first trophy since 2017 if they beat Unai Emery’s Villarreal in Gdansk on Wednesday.
There have been comparisons drawn with Cantona in the talismanic impact Fernandes has had at Old Trafford since his arrival from Sporting Lisbon in a £47 million deal in January 2020.
The 26-year-old Portugal international has scored 40 goals in all competitions in the season and a half since he signed.
He has 19 Premier League assists in that time and has won four player of the month awards, taking him into joint sixth on the all-time list — along with Cristiano Ronaldo, Thierry Henry and Alan Shearer, among others.
“It is an honour to be compared with him because the impact he had was really high and he won many major trophies with the club,” Fernandes told BBC Sport.
“But when you are compared with this kind of big player it means you need to be better every day. It makes me work harder to keep in the mind of the people, being compared with him. That, for me, is a good pressure.”
Speaking to BBC Sport recently, Ferguson said Fernandes “has got the thing United have really needed over the last few years, an ability to make a pass in the final third that opens up defences”.
The statistics alone underline what kind of impact Fernandes has made.
In all competitions, United’s win ratio has increased from 42,9 percent from the start of 2019-20 until he joined to 59 percent since then.
In the Premier League, the figures are 37,5 percent and 57,7 percent.
Solskjaer’s side lost eight times in their 24 league games prior to his arrival last season.
They have lost six in 52 since then and two of those were against Leicester and Liverpool in the last two weeks.
If at times it has felt Fernandes has been driving United forward on his own, he played it down, saying. “It is such a big club. It would be heavy to lift it myself,” he said. — BBC Sport
Online Reporter