MANCHESTER UNITED welcome LASK Linz to Old Trafford on Wednesday evening for the second leg of their Last 16 Europa League tie. Brett Curtis (@brett_curtis92) showcases his favourite fancies.
Manchester United vs LASK Linz | Wednesday 5th August 2020, 20:00 | BT Sport
Manchester United host Austrian side LASK Linz in their Europa League Last 16 second leg on Wednesday night. The Red Devils are expected to make wholesale changes, having won the away tie 5-0 prior to the Covid-19 inflicted lockdown.
Jesse Lingard sat in with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the pre-match press conference. The Norwegian told reporters: “Jesse will be starting but the team won’t be too different from the last time we played LASK away in March.”
In that match, Sergio Romero started in goal, with Brandon Williams, Eric Bailly, Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw in defence. Shaw has been ruled out through injury along with Axel Tuenzebe, so Timonthy Fosu-Mensah or Diogo Dalot should start.
In midfield, it was Scott McTominay, Fred and Juan Mata, with Daniel James, Bruno Fernandes and Odion Ighalo in attack. Swap Fernandes for Lingard and you’d probably expect that to be the front six on Wednesday evening.
It’s always tough to approach games like this from a betting point of view. There’s no urgency for United to chase goals, but equally the fringe players will be looking to impress ahead of the next round. Meanwhile, LASK come into this game in poor form, having lost their last three matches of the Austrian Bundesliga campaign.
With these two factors in mind, I love the look of Ighalo to have 2+ shots on-target at evens with Betfair. It’s landed in both Europa League matches he’s started for United since joining on-loan in January, including in the away leg at LASK, when the Nigerian scored the opening goal.
Ighalo will be keen to score again having been used sparingly since the restart, but he showed his natural ability in front of goal with a brilliant finish in the 2-1 win at Norwich in the FA Cup in June.
With so much uncertainty in terms of team selection and motivation ahead of this game, I’m keeping it to just the one selection on the likely starting striker.
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Manchester United vs LASK Linz – Odion Ighalo to have 2+ shots on-target (1/1 Betfair)
