Manchester United welcome Real Sociedad to Old Trafford in the second leg of the Europa League last 16 tie this evening.
Joshua Zirkzee scored last week as United secured a 1-1 draw in San Sebastian with everything left to play for in the second leg.
Were the Red Devils to get a positive result tonight, they would face Olympique Lyonnais or FCSB in the quarter-finals.
Here are three plotlines to ponder before the season-defining match for Ruben Amorim’s side.
United’s season could effectively end tonight
United have endured a horrible season domestically where there has been a paucity of positive talking points.
A 14th placed position in the table means they are 12 points behind 7th place and very unlikely to achieve qualification for the Conference League via the final Premier League standings.
The Red Devils are also out of the Carabao Cup and were beaten in the FA Cup fifth round by Fulham on penalties earlier this month.
The only positive from the season has been their strong form in Europe as they are currently unbeaten in nine games and if that were to end, they would effectively have nothing left to play for, despite having 10 league matches left to play.
United aiming to protect fantastic Europa League home record
Ruben Amorim’s side have had very questionable home form in the Premier League this season. They have the 12th best record in the league, winning just six of their 15 matches and losing seven in total.
Nonetheless, Europe has been an entirely different story.
The BBC report that “Manchester United’s only home defeat across their last 28 UEFA Europa League matches at Old Trafford (winning 21 and drawing six) was against tonight’s opponents Real Sociedad in September 2022.”
“In the knockout stages, they are unbeaten in 15 (winning 10 and drawing five) since losing 3-2 to Marcelo Bielsa’s Athletic Club in March 2012.”
When they exited the competition at the quarter-final stage in 2023, they drew 2-2 in Manchester with Sevilla but were easily beaten 3-0 in Andalusia.
Real Sociedad away day struggles
The Basque side did win their last away game in Europe 2-1 against FC Midtjylland in Denmark.
Nonetheless, “the Spanish side have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of their last six away games, conceding 10 goals.”
In the league stage they only won one out of their four away matches, losing to SS Lazio and Viktoria Plzen.
They did beat a ten man Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C 2-1 and drew 1-1 with OGC Nice.
They have also struggled away from home domestically, winning just four of their 13 away days so far this season in La Liga.
Featured image Ion Alcoba Beitia via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
