Manchester United moved into the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup after a comfortable 3-0 win over Colchester United on Wednesday night, but the real challenge is ahead as the Red Devils were paired against defending champions Manchester City in the semi-finals.
While Ole Gunnar Solskjaer side had a relatively eventful night against the minnows, with Marcus Rashford scoring and assisting one, while Anthony Martial also got into the score-sheet, things will only get more difficult from this point onwards.
They will play City twice over two legs in the Carabao Cup semi-finals, and Solskjaer knows how difficult a challenge it’ll be after their Manchester Derby success a few weeks ago.
The Norwegian agreed that the game will be a difficult one, lauding their City rivals and urging his side to be ready for the challenge ahead.
He said, “Of course, we do really respect them and, as I said after the game at the derby last time, it’s in my opinion the best team in England. They can out football you, so we need to get our game heads on and be ready for them again.”
However, he also admitted that the games will be thrilling encounters, saying, “But we’ve shown them that we can cause them problems, so I think they’ll be two fantastic games.”
Solskjaer explained how he was pleased by how United approached the derby the last time around but urged his side to be better in handling the situation going forward.
He explained, “We’ve looked at that game and, yeah, we’re very pleased with the result and parts of that game. There’s thing we need to do so much better. The first 10 minutes, I was like you close your eyes and you think ‘we’ve just got to hang in there.”
“We’ve got to stamp our authority more on them. There’s not many that can do but we have to aim for that, and we have to strive for that.”, the Norwegian insisted.
He also agreed that attempting the same tactics against a side like City won’t work, stating that his side must be better with their approach to defeat their fired-up rivals.
“I don’t think you’ll beat City twice in a row or three times with the same tactics. So, we’ll have to try to do something better than we did last time I think because I am sure Pep will definitely have his team fired up.”, Solskjaer expressed.
United will be hosting their arch-rivals at Old Trafford on 7th January and travel back to the Etihad Stadium on 28th January in what is guaranteed to be two thrilling derbies despite both assured to rest certain key players.
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