Jose: Mental Strength Is Key

Jose Mourinho has stressed the importance of his Manchester United players stayed mentally focused and strong during both legs of the Europa League semi-final against Celta Vigo.

The Reds are in Spain for the first leg of the last-four clash against the La Liga outfit, who have reached this stage for the first time in European competition.

With a place in the final in Stockholm later this month just two games away, Mourinho has encouraged his players to rise to the occasion but to also remain calm, composed and concentrated in their quest.

“The most important thing is to be ready for the occasion and to cope well with the moment,” he told MUTV when asked about the key to progressing to the final. “It’s very normal to see teams and players reaching crucial matches and lose identity and not be mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure of the moment.

“So it’s very important that the players are strong mentally and enjoy a difficult atmosphere here and then to wish that at home we get the best out of Old Trafford. When we get that our team has been phenomenal but when we didn’t get that the team was not so confident. Let’s hope we can have that at Old Trafford.”

While United have been in a battle for a place in the top four in the Premier League and dealing with countless injuries, Celta have had little to play for in La Liga, meaning they have been able to rest key players and have had a reasonably clean bill of health of late (barring former United striker Giuseppe Rossi being out with a serious knee problem).

Mourinho was asked if those factors give Celta the slight advantage but he insisted: “I want to say no, I want to say we are ready and we are. We just think about the game we have to play but since we qualified [for the semi-finals] after beating Anderlecht we have played lots of matches and matches that demand a lot from us whereas they have everyone at the maximum of their level.

“The atmosphere will not be easy. It’s an atmosphere where the people really love the club and they support the players very, very much. And the way they play is as a team pressing a lot so they don’t leave much space to play. They have quality players in attack and they are a quality team, but we are ready for the match.”