Man Utd vs Anderlecht: Preview, Team News, Line-Ups, Betting Tips & Prediction

Manchester United will look to book their place in the last four of the Europa League when they welcome Anderlecht to Old Trafford this evening.

United head in to the game having secured a vital away goal in the first leg with Henrikh Mkhitaryan opening the scoring before the hosts rescued a draw with a late equaliser.

Despite the late setback, the result in Belgium still leaves United well positioned to progress to the semi-finals and remain on course to winning the Europa League which would secure their place in the Champions League next season.

Jose Mourinho has made no secret that he’s taking the Europa League seriously as he sees it as an excellent chance to book United’s place at Europe’s top table next year with the Red Devils still outside the top four in the Premier League.

An impressive 2-0 win over Chelsea last weekend maintained United’s position in fifth and they trail Liverpool by six points with two games in hand so they still are right in the hunt for the top four, but the Europa League is an excellent fall-back for the Manchester giants.

Anderlecht arrive at Old Trafford sitting top of the Jupiler League and haven’t lost in their last seven matches but that run will be put to the test this evening.

Team News

United will give Wayne Rooney a late fitness test to see whether he’ll be able to return from an ankle injury but a place on the bench is the best he can hope for.

Mourinho has confirmed that Sergio Romero will start in goal with David De Gea dropping out while Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Michael Carrick are also pushing for recalls.

Chris Smalling and Phil Jones are still unavailable while Juan Mata won’t play again this season following groin surgery.

As for Anderlecht, leading scorer Lukasz Teodorczyk is set to start after only being fit enough for the bench last week.

Likely Line-Ups

Anderlecht: Ruben; Obradovic, Nuytinck, Mbodji, Appiah; Dendoncker, Tielemans; Acheampong, Stancui, Hanni; Teodorczyk

Predicted Score

Man Utd 2-0 Anderlecht: United have won all five of their European games at Old Trafford this season and have kept clean sheets in the last three of those matches so they will be confident of progressing tonight. Mourinho set his team up perfectly to beat Chelsea but I don’t think he’ll need such a tactical masterclass tonight as I can see United easing to a routine 2-0 win.

Betting Tips

United are the favourites with the bookies but we can get new customers enhanced odds of 18/1 for a United win tonight – just click here to take advantage of these crazy odds [winnings as free bet, T&C’s apply].

Here are some other bets I like the look of:

• Both teams to score NO at: 4/6 – a £10 bet would return £16.50
• Exact score of 2-0 United at: 11/2 – a £10 bet would return £65
• Ibrahimovic to score first in a 2-0 United win at: 10/1 – a £10 bet would return £110