Young Confident United Can Beat Rostov

Ashley Young is confident Manchester United will be ready to face FC Rostov tonight [Thursday] and can progress to the last eight of the Europa League.
  
With the tie finely poised after last week’s 1-1 draw in the first leg, the Reds take on the Russian outfit in the Round of 16 second leg at Old Trafford, just three days after the Emirates FA Cup quarter-final defeat at Chelsea.

But despite the quick turnaround and busy schedule recently, Young believes the players have moved on from the disappointment of Stamford Bridge, and are fully prepared in a bid to take a step closer to winning the Europa League for the first time in the club’s history.    
 
“I think we dust ourselves down and recover in the right way,” he told MUTV. “It was tough; we’ve had Rostov away, we had Chelsea away, which was obviously a disappointing game that wasn’t helped for a number of reasons, but it’s one of those things.

“We’ve got to be prepared and ready to go again and get ourselves into the next round, which is what we set out to do and that’s what we want to do – go to the final and win the competition. As a club, we’ve never won this competition so we’re looking to make history.”

After our FA Cup defence came to an unfortunate end at Stamford Bridge, the Europa League has taken on greater significance for the Reds, with a place in next season’s Champions League the reward for the winners of the competition.

Although Young acknowledges the prize on offer, the 31-year-old is focused solely on overcoming Rostov and feels having the right attitude and application will play a huge part if the Reds advance to next month’s quarter-finals.

“We’ve always said, every competition we’re in, we want to go and win,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to get in the Champions League and we will be prepared, with everybody recovered and players coming back; players will be fresh come kick-off time on Thursday and it’s an important game.

“I’m sure as long as everybody is playing in the right way and giving 100 per cent, as we always do, we will be able to get through to the next round.”

Jose Mourinho deployed a three-man defence in the first leg against Rostov, with Young operating as a right wing-back at the Olimp-2 stadium.

When asked if he enjoys playing in that system, Young joked: “It depends who we are playing!” But the no.18 added that he is happy to play in any position he is required for the team.

“Whether it’s a wing-back, left-wing, wherever it is, wherever called upon, I always go and give my all and give my best but it’s down to the manager,” Young said.

“We’re not too sure what we’ll face again on Thursday, what the manager will pick, but we know every player in the squad is going to be ready to go out there, put a shift in and go and get us into the next round.”

The Reds have the edge heading into the second leg at the Theatre of Dreams after Henrikh Mkhitaryan’s crucial away goal in Rostov-on-Don – and Young emphasised the importance of building on last week’s result and making home advantage count from the start.   

“I think it was definitely a positive result when we went out there to get the away goal; obviously it was disappointing for them to score but we wanted to just get out of there injury-free because the pitch was terrible,” he said.

“Now we’re at home, we’ll get the ball down and play. It’s home advantage, which we always look forward to, and we’ve not lost at home in Europe so we’ll definitely go to win the game, hopefully score early and a few goals in the first half and I’m sure the tie would be over.”

Last week’s game was the first time the Reds have come up against the little-known Russian outfit, who beat Bayern Munich at home in the Champions League group stages but have found the going tough on the road in Europe.  

Although Rostov could pose a difficult challenge once again, Young is optimistic United can capitalise on their away struggles to finish the job.  

“They were obviously tough to play against but the pitch was tough to play against as well. They’ve done well in Europe, especially at home, when you look at the teams they’ve played against and beat as well,” he commented.

“They’ve done well at home but away from home I don’t think they’ve got a result, so we’d like to add to their misery of not winning away from home. I’m sure we can go out there, get the win and be in the next round.”