Paul Scholes names Man Utd's biggest threat to Europa League glory

Solskjaer rotated his team last night following a gruelling end to the domestic campaign and United required a late winner from Anthony Martial to secure a 2-1 second leg victory over Austrian side LASK at Old Trafford. 

United were 5-0 up from the reverse fixture, which took place in early March, and already assured in the latter stages of the competition which will now take the form of a straight knockout tournament. 

Solskjaer’s men will travel to Germany imminently and will face FC Copenhagen in the quarter finals. The likes of Inter, Roma and Sevilla are still lurking in the draw, however, and Scholes feels Antonio Conte’s side, which boasts the likes of Romelu Lukaku and Christian Eriksen, pose a real danger.

He told BT Sport: ‘This Europa League is a really big opportunity for them now. There’s some decent teams left in there, you can’t dismiss the likes of Sevilla, who won it three times on the trot at one stage.

‘Roma obviously will have quality, Italian teams are always difficult to play against. But the biggest threat to Man United winning this Europa League to me is Inter Milan, I think they’re along with United the best team in it. 

‘I think if that’s the final that will be a great final, something really to look forward to. There’s motivation on each side especially from Inter players, look at Lukaku the way he left the club, that could be a big story. 

‘But I just think if United are firing, they’re mentally right, they’re fresh, I think they’ve got better players than inter Milan, they’ll just come through that. They’ll beat Copenhagen I don’t think its a problem.’

Inter, meanwhile, progressed to the last eight, where they will face either Rangers or Bayer Leverkusen, after a 2-0 win over Getafe with former United striker Lukaku helping himself to the 30th goal of his debut season in Italy. 

‘Progressing in Europe is also a chance to gain experience. I am happy with the performance,’ said Conte. ‘We could’ve had an even better scoreline. Romelu scored a great goal, attacking the space with the other striker moving towards him. I think Romelu took a while to get into the game, but then he made the difference as he stepped up a level. We had more chances to score. 

‘I am glad that the lads proved they want to keep going and aren’t ready to go on vacation yet.’