Ruben Amorim is not taking progress to the Europa League final for granted as he admitted Manchester United have a tendency to “lose our mind a little bit” when the going gets tough.
The United boss believes his side need to score in Thursday’s semi-final second leg against Athletic Bilbao despite boasting an authoritative 3-0 lead.
The Red Devils enjoyed one of their greatest ever European away days last week as Casemiro’s header was complemented by a Bruno Fernandes brace after Dani Vivian’s red card at a stunned San Mames.
All 133 teams in the competition’s history to have scored three or more goals away from home in the first leg have progressed, with odds of 40-1 on absentee-hit Athletic reaching the final in their home city underlining the task at hand.
But there is little chance of Amorim’s men becoming complacent, especially given United are enduring their worst campaign of the Premier League era and escaped with a jaw-dropping comeback against Lyon in the previous round.
“If you look at our season, anything is possible, so we have to understand one goal can change anything, the momentum of the game,” Amorim said.
“One sending off, you saw it a week ago, so we are prepared to fight to win the game not thinking about the result.
“Of course that matters and the way we are going to do things, especially when we start the game, but of course we are thinking about winning the game.”
Athletic face an almighty challenge, but United have lost 3-0 at Old Trafford on three occasions this term.
“We have to face the game as one more game,” Amorim said of the approach. “I feel that we need to score to go to the next round, so that is clearly the way we are going to face the game.
“Brentford, we are near the draw, but we suffer a goal and another one quite fast. That can happen.
“That happened four times here in Manchester United, so we will have to suffer a little bit to go to the final. We are ready to suffer and we need to be better in the small details.”
Asked if he knows which United will turn up on Thursday, Amorim said: “It’s hard to say, and sometimes it’s not what kind of team we will be tomorrow.
“Sometimes even during the game we are one team, something happens and we lose our mind a little bit.
“But we are improving the way we play, we are more confident and we are ready to face this challenge.”
An all-English final against Tottenham is on the cards should they overcome Bodo/Glimt, giving the sides in 15th and 16th place a chance to win a continental trophy and progress to the Champions League.
“In the end of this season, we can be the worst (United) team in Premier League history with a European title, so it will not change nothing,” Amorim said.
“We know that this season was really disappointing for everybody. Nothing is going to change.”
Joshua Zirkzee, Diogo Dalot and Lisandro Martinez are ruled out of Thursday’s second leg, as are Toby Collyer, Jonny Evans and Ayden Heaven.
Matthijs de Ligt, who returned in Bilbao after a month, is also absent having limped off 35 minutes into Sunday’s 4-3 loss at Brentford.
“It is not a big issue that is the good thing,” he said of the defender. “He cannot play tomorrow, he will not play on Sunday but then we will check day by day. We will see.”
