Europa League Continues To Offer Manchester United Hope
There will always be Manchester United fans happy to go into sports shops to get the latest kit, highlighting an ongoing attachment to the history and heritage of the club, even when recent events on the pitch have fallen below the glory years of the past.
While the recent passing of the great Denis Law was a reminder of how good things have been in the past, one element of this season continues to offer an unlikely hope for the club; the Europa League.
It is not often that United have been in the same sentence as the word unbeaten, but that remains the case after seven games of the group campaign, with a 2-1 win over Rangers representing their fourth straight win to follow three defeats.
Victory over the Glaswegian team, who drew 1-1 with Spurs at Ibrox earlier in the tournament, did not come easy, with Harry Maguire, in particular, missing a gilt-edged chance to add to a Jack Butland own goal when he punched a corner into his own net.
It looked like United would pay the price for profligacy when a Maguire misjudgment enabled Cyriel Dessers to score an 88th-minute equaliser. But Bruno Fernandes won the game with a volley in stoppage time that puts United up to fourth in the table, with the top eight getting automatic qualification.
Winning the tournament would not only bring United the glory of another European trophy, but provide an alternative route to Champions League qualification, something their league performances have no chance of achieving.
United are likely to need just one point from their final game against FCSB in Bucharest. The Romanians were formerly known as Steaua Bucharest, but a legal dispute over their ownership in 2017 saw them stripped of their name – and another club bearing the name has been formed in their place.
However, FCSB remains the linear continuation of the club that won the European Cup in 1986.