football
Share icon

Share

Here’s why Manchester United will play a Europa League game on a Champions League night

Published 19:58 12 Dec 2016 GMT

Updated 19:59 12 Dec 2016 GMT

Tom Victor
Here’s why Manchester United will play a Europa League game on a Champions League night

Homefootball

Just when Manchester United supporters had got used to playing games on Thursday nights, UEFA have gone and confused them.

United have played 10 times on a Thursday since dropping out of last season's Champions League - two two-legged Europa League ties against Midtjylland and Liverpool, plus six group games in this season's competition. This season Jose Mourinho's team have been drawn against Saint-Etienne in the last 32, and the second-leg of the tie will be played on a Wednesday, not a Thursday. https://twitter.com/manutd/status/808310994699173888 Cue plenty of Champions League jokes... https://twitter.com/MrJoeyJackson/status/808340852967936002 https://twitter.com/abhi9_k/status/808313488342970369 https://twitter.com/EDETASUQUO13/status/808379501113704449 https://twitter.com/dante262/status/808320043054465024 So, the reason for the switch is not quite as glamorous as you might have hoped. The game, at Saint-Etienne's Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, has been rescheduled to avoid a clash with a Europa league tie in nearby Lyon. One of the games had to be moved, and it ended up being the United one. https://twitter.com/ManUtd/status/808312093099388929 Incidentally, Lyon's match is against AZ Alkmaar, a club formerly managed by none other than Louis van Gaal. Fresh from seeing the Dutchman lead United to the fifth-place finish that guaranteed Europa League football to begin with, they've seen their schedules ruined by LVG once more. The first leg of the tie will still be played on a Thursday night, on February 16. Catch up with this week's episode of Football Friday Live

Explore more on these topics:

More
News