Manchester United have done it! They’re back in the Champions League! Jose Mourinho’s on the pitch! His assistants are chucking him up and down in the air. This appears to mean a lot. His son runs on to the pitch and Mourinho bundles him to the floor in a huge embrace. United’s manager has got quite emotional here, the old softie.
Manchester United ended the season by winning the UEFA Europa League for the first time in the club’s history, following a convincing 2-0 win over AFC Ajax in Stockholm. Manchester is a city in mourning and so the meaning of Manchester United’s Europa League final against Ajax Wednesday changed significantly in the two days since the suicide bombing which killed 22 people and injured many more.
At the Friends Arena in Stockholm, a United fan held aloft a poster which read: “Come on United, do it for Manchester.” And they did, beating their Dutch opponents 2-0. Paul Pogba, the world’s most expensive footballer and a man who, less than a fortnight ago, lost his father to a long-term illness, gave United the lead with a 25-yard deflected strike. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, another expensive summer purchase, hooked the ball home from six yards to double United’s lead and secure the English side a first Europa League title and a place in next season’s Champions League.
A sixth-place finish in the English Premier League meant United had to win this match if they wanted to secure Champions League qualification. Not only will Jose Mourinho’s men be playing among Europe’s elite next season, benefiting from the prestige and financial rewards that will bring, but the club has now completed its collection of major trophies. United are now only the fifth club — alongside Ajax, Chelsea, Juventus and Bayern Munich — to have won all three European trophies.
“If we could, we would obviously change the people’s lives for this cup, immediately,” Mourinho told reporters. “We wouldn’t think twice. Does this cup make the city of Manchester a little bit happier? Maybe. But we just came to do our job. “We came without the happiness we should bring with us, because when you come for these big matches you come happy, you come proud. And we didn’t. We just came to do our job.”
