Mount: It was a special night

Manchester United are through to the Europa League final, with more than a little thanks to midfielder Mason Mount.

It’s been a difficult year for the 26-year-old; a campaign held back by persistent injury, but he has worked tirelessly towards his return to the pitch and made his presence felt against Athletic Club.

“It’s been difficult,” the midfielder admitted. “Obviously, since I’ve been here, I’ve had the injuries, the setbacks, but I always stay positive and I knew something good was going to come, and I carried on going.”

Anyone connected with United will be thankful he did, if only for the 28 minutes he provided on Wednesday night.

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The Basques entered the second leg three goals behind, but clawed one back in the first half and were putting immense pressure on the Reds on the other side of the interval.

Amorim noted the need for change, introducing Mount, along with Luke Shaw and Amad, and it took our no.7 just 10 minutes to settle things down, in the best way possible, swivelling on a sixpence inside the visitors’ box before tucking his finish neatly into the bottom-right corner.

In a second. the pressure Athletic Club had been exerting was relieved.

Mount continued: “We kind of weathered the storm, and then, obviously getting that first goal to make it 1-1, kind of calmed us down a little bit.

“[I] just tried to come on and affect the game. It was a tight game when I come on, along with the other subs, so [I was] just trying to come on and calm the game down and have an impact.”

But that, arguably, was not even his best goal of the night.

In stoppage time, after a loose clearance from goalkeeper Julen Agirrezabala, Mount seized the ball just inside our opponents’ half, looked up, saw an empty net and smashed home United’s fourth, and seventh of the tie, before letting out a cheeky smile.

“I was in front of my midfielder, so I just had in my head, ‘If it comes to me, first touch and shoot’,” he explained.

“Didn’t need it to go on my left foot, but I just tried to get good contact cause I saw the defender was quite far away from the goal.”

For his first two goals at Old Trafford he could scarcely have asked for much more, both in terms of execution and context.

“The crowd’s been unbelievable,” Mount continued. “They’ve stuck with us.

“For me personally, obviously my first goals here, at Old Trafford, so a special night. One I’ve been waiting for a long time.

“A special moment for us tonight, and we want to finish strong now.”

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