On Tuesday night, Manchester United will face Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie, and the early team news is in.
Manchester United have named Scott McTominay and Bruno Fernandes to their squad for the second leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night. Ralf Rangnick’s team returns to European action with a 1-1 aggregate score following the first leg in Madrid last month.
United should have a nearly fully fit squad to choose from for the crucial second leg at Old Trafford, with Fernandes set to play after missing Saturday’s 3-2 win over Tottenham due to a positive Covid-19 test.
Earlier this week, the Manchester Evening News reported that Fernandes had returned to United’s Carrington training complex. Luke Shaw, who was also absent for Tottenham’s win as well as Manchester City’s 4-1 thrashing with Covid, was also at Carrington on Monday morning but was not photographed with the rest of the squad as they arrived at the Hyatt hotel.
McTominay missed Spurs’ win due to a calf injury, but he trained with Fernandes, Shaw, and the rest of the squad on Monday morning. Rangnick said there was a “small question mark” about Shaw’s availability, and he appears to be the only senior player who will miss the game.
“As of right now, we have all of the players available for tomorrow, with the exception of Luke Shaw,” Rangnick said at his pre-game press conference on Monday afternoon. “He trained yesterday and today, but we’ll have to wait and see if he’s fully fit for the game.” All of the other players have returned to training and are ready to go for tomorrow.
“Fernandes? He was tested yesterday and came back negative, which allowed him to train today.”
Anthony Elanga scored the crucial goal in the first leg of the tie, but all eyes will be on star striker Cristiano Ronaldo when the two sides meet again on Tuesday night.
The Portuguese striker scored a hat-trick in the weekend win over Tottenham, giving him six goals in six Champions League appearances this season.
Ronaldo scored hat-tricks against Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, and Juventus in the Champions League knockout stage, and Rangnick is confident his star player can replicate his match-winning exploits from the weekend.
Rangnick responded when asked if he was concerned about Ronaldo starting again three days after a taxing match: “I’m not concerned that he hasn’t recovered completely. He’s always been someone who takes care of himself and his body, and he knows exactly what to do. So I’m not concerned about it.
“We’ll see if he can score three more goals. It is extremely difficult to score three goals against this team. His overall performance was excellent, and we obviously expect more of the same from him tomorrow night.”
“However, it’s not just about Cristiano; it’s about the team,” Rangnick added. “We saw in the first half in Madrid what we shouldn’t do and how we should do it.
“It’s critical, especially against a team like Atletico, who don’t mind the other team having the ball and have had less than 50% possession of the ball in their last five games. So we’re aware of that and need to make sure, if at all possible, that we don’t concede, but it’s also critical that we score the first goal ourselves.”
On Saturday, it was clear that we wanted to win that game; our fans played an important role in recognizing how much we wanted to win that game, and the same will be true tomorrow.
“It’s difficult for me to respond to that question because there was a lot of debate before that game.” He demonstrated what kind of professional player he is and what level he can still play at. It’s important performances like the one he showed for us because he’s still a very important player for this team and can make a difference.
“It will also be good for us if he has a similar performance to the one he had against Tottenham tomorrow.”
United squad members have been confirmed.
De Gea, Heaton, Henderson; Bailly, Dalot, Jones, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles, Varane, Wan-Bissaka; Fernandes, Fred, Mata, Matic, McTominay, Pogba; Cavani, Elanga, Lingard, Rashford, Ronaldo, Sancho.
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