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Manchester United reached the Europa League semifinals after Edinson Cavani’s early strike and a Jesus Vallejo own goal secured a 2-0 home win over Granada on Thursday and completed a 4-0 aggregate rout of the Spanish side.
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United will face AS Roma for a place in the May 26 final in Gdansk after the Italian side ground out a 3-2 aggregate win over Ajax Amsterdam with a 1-1 home draw in the second leg of their quarterfinal.
“We are looking forward to it. We’re in the semis. It feels like a proper European tie because Roma is a club with lots of history,” United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said. “We’ve done well against Italian sides before.
“We’re going into it hoping to get to the final. If we can finish the season with a trophy that’d be great.”
Cavani netted his 50th goal in European competition with a clinical sixth-minute finish as United made a bright start.
Granada came to life after falling behind and their forward Yangel Herrera twice headed inches wide as the home side appeared content to sit back.
Bruno Fernandes fired narrowly over the bar for United with a rasping first-time volley in the 34th minute and Cavani headed wide of the far post before Vallejo scored at the wrong end of the pitch in the 90th minute.
Vallejo scored at the wrong end of the pitch in the 90th minute as Alex Telles swung in a cross from the left and the centre back gave Silva no chance with a misdirected header which ended up in the bottom corner.
Fernandes said he was confident United, beaten by eventual winners Sevilla FC in last season’s semifinals, could overcome Roma.
“Every team will give you problems,” the Portugal midfielder told BT Sport.
“They have a good organisation defensively, they can create problems offensively. Some of their players have played in England. We know what we have to do. If we do the right things, we will have our chances to win the game.”
Solskjaer rested Marcus Rashford against Granada hoping the striker would recover from a niggling foot injury for the Burnley clash and he took Paul Pogba off at halftime after the France midfielder got booked.
“Sometimes, Paul wants to win so much,” said the Norwegian. “He went into a couple of tackles after his yellow card but I thought I don’t want to risk that [him being sent off] even though he played so well.
“We hope [Rashford] is going to be ready. Today was about not risking him. He was on the bench just in case because you never know in a knockout tie. He’s been playing with a sore foot.”
The last four opens up the prospect of an all-English final as Villarreal face Arsenal in the other semi after the Gunners thrashed Slavia Prague 4-0 away to complete a 5-1 aggregate victory.