Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will not come forward after Friday’s Europa League draw.
United have found that if they pass the last 16 they will meet FC Copenhagen or Istanbul Basaksehir in the next round of the European competition, which is expected to start in August after the Premier League ends.
With a 5-0 lead already secured from the first leg of the draw with LASK before the suspension of football, United is almost guaranteed a place in the next round ahead of the return leg at Old Trafford.
The routes to the final were also plotted on Friday and United could challenge Premier League rivals Wolves, Olympiacos, Seville or Rome in the semifinals, while there could even be a final against some familiar faces if they and Inter are both far away.
However, Solskjaer is not thinking very far and is completely focused on ending the home season strongly before the attention turns to Europe.
“Well, I don’t want to look too far because I just think we should focus on the next game,” said Solskjaer at the United official website.
“Now we are in a position where we are only focusing on the league, but obviously, when you look at the ties that can come: we could play Wolves, we could meet Ashley [Young] and Romelu [Lukaku, both of Inter] so there are definitely games that we can’t wait and we just have to keep running.
“Hopefully we can make it to the quarterfinals, but again, as we said, it’s about finishing the LASK draw first.”
Starting in the quarterfinals, the competition will change format in a single leg knockout tournament with all games hosted in Germany due to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s a change that Solskjaer is excited about.
“I can not wait. It’s like a mini tournament, “he added.
“I have been involved in a European championship and a World Cup, so we will live together abroad and here we have staff who have been involved in this type of tournament, so we will prepare really well and hope that it can last more than one just play.
“I look at it in the opposite way as I think we are playing well and reaching a high and standard level of football, and we hope to be able to carry it forward in Europe and in the next season.”
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