Manchester United take on Fenerbahce with Erik ten Hag, once again, in desperate need of a victory to both ease the pressure on his position and kickstart his side’s Europa League campaign. To do so, they will have to vanquish several ghosts of their past in Istanbul, notably Jose Mourinho.
The Special One - who took over the Turkish giants in the summer - is ready to “welcome” his former club and Ten Hag to town. Mourinho told reporters at his pre-match press conference that he “wishes the best to Man United since the moment I left”, but getting one over them, as he has with Porto and Real Madrid, would surely make him smile.
Rather fittingly, Mourinho was in the United dugout the last time the two sides met, presiding over a 2-1 loss at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium in November 2016, a season which ended with the club’s sole success in the competition.
The Portuguese was quick to point this out, telling a reporter who mentioned that defeat: “Fenerbahce also lost in Manchester, and that year Manchester United were European champions and I was the manager.”
It was the sixth time the two clubs met, with the other five featuring United’s first-ever European home loss in October 1996 and Wayne Rooney’s debut hat-trick in a 6-2 win just over 20 years ago. Their seventh clash will not only see Ten Hag come up against his most significant (post-Ferguson) predecessor, but two midfielders he used, and disposed of, at Old Trafford: Fred and Sofyan Amrabat.
Fred moved to the Turkish capital in the summer of 2023, with Amrabat joining him this summer following a mostly forgettable loan spell with United in which he was signed in part to replace the Brazilian. Both player’s last games for the club came in FA Cup finals, with the Moroccan being the one to leave with a winners’ medal.
Could either come back to haunt a United side likely to include Manuel Ugarte, a player signed as an upgrade on both? The Uruguayan could do with a big game, particularly with Casemiro likely to join Kobbie Mainoo in the treatment room, and Bruno Fernandes suspended.
The former midfielders are joined by a collection of ex-Premier League stalwarts fitting of any Turkish side in recent memory, including several with previous against United, namely, and ominously, Edin Dzeko.
The veteran Bosnian forward’s five derby goals for Manchester City will be best recalled, but he has also scored in all four other games with Wolfsburg and Roma, the first of which took place more than 15 years ago.
The alternative to him up top, Youssef En-Nesyri, even has history with United, scoring twice for Sevilla in a 3-0 quarter-final second leg win in April 2023.
Those two, and Dusan Tadic, Allan Saint-Maximin among others, will fancy adding to that tally against a United side that have won only one of their last nine games in Europe, and conceded three times in each of their last four away games on the continent.
I wish them the best to since the moment I left, if things are not going amazingly well for them I’m not happy
One of those games came in Istanbul at the home of Fenerbahce’s arch-rivals, Galatasaray, as United threw away another two-goal lead to draw 3-3 on a night to forget for goalkeeper Andre Onana.
With so many narratives, and United’s propensity to self-destruct, another night of chaos and high drama appears the only outcome. That is unless Ten Hag and his team can banish their demons, and silence the Special One, his motley crew and a raucous home crowd.
