Jose Mourinho vows to keep Manchester United fresh for Europa League final after disposing of Celta

Portuguese will seek to preserve the freshness of his players over their final three Premier League games after they reach Europa League final

Reading Time:3 minutes

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho celebrates after the Uefa Europa League semi-final win over Celta Vigo. Photo: AFP

Published: 9:57am, 12 May 2017Updated: 8:20pm, 12 May 2017

Jose Mourinho will unapologetically seek to preserve the freshness of his Manchester United players over their final three Premier League games, he said after they reached the Europa League final.

United will play Ajax in Stockholm on May 24 after a nervy 1-1 draw at home to Celta Vigo on Thursday, in which centre back Eric Bailly was sent off, gave them a 2-1 aggregate semi-final win.

Whereas Ajax’s season finishes on Sunday, United still have three league games to play and Mourinho said he would have no qualms about making sure his players are in top shape for the trip to Sweden.

“Obviously now Ajax think about the final,” the United manager told journalists at Old Trafford.

“Their league finishes on Sunday and they will have 12 days to prepare for the final and we have three Premier League matches to play.

Manchester United’s Marouane Fellaini celebrates scoring their early goal. Photo: EPA

“Hopefully Crystal Palace (United’s final league opponents) don’t need the last game, because in the last game I’m going to make a lot of changes and nobody can blame us because we have a final two days later.”