The Amsterdammers’ boss has refused to admit defeat ahead of his side’s Europa League last-32 tie and insisted his side will emulate FC Basel.
Ajax Amsterdam head coach, Frank de Boer, has expressed optimism ahead of his side’s Europa League round-of-32 second-leg against Manchester United at Old Trafford on Thursday, February 23.
The Red Devils are the favourites to progress through to the next phase of the competition after securing a comfortable 2-0 win over the Amsterdammers in the first-leg at Amsterdam Arena on February 16.
After receiving a demoralising loss in the first-leg, Ajax are left with a mountain to climb in the return leg. However, De Boer is thinking positively and insists that his side will press hard to claim a good result, though he admitted it will not be an
easy task to upset Sir http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-c4752 Ferguson’s men.
“We are not here just to see the scenery and we will see after the game what the result is. It was a difficult first game when we lost at home. We will try to make life difficult for United - overall, it is a great opportunity for our players to play this
game”
“There were some positives from the match in Holland and we want to repeat those things here. It will be a great advantage if we can take the lead. We are trying to go for that surprise element, but we will not be naive. We have to be optimistic”, De Boer
was quoted as saying to Football 365.com.
The Amsterdam giants are brimming with confidence following their impressive 4-1 victory over http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/NEC-c40018 Nijmegen in their Eredivisie match-day 22 encounter. The Dutch mentor indicated that his side will be the same apart from Dmitry Bulykin, who has a calf problem.
Nicolas Lodeiro will be replacing the Russian ace in the front-line.
On the other hand, Manchester United will be without http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/FC-Basel-c39079 managed to claim a 3-3 stalemate in the UEFA Champions
League group stage encounter.
De Boer expects his side to surprise the English Premier League giants at home just like the Swiss outfit managed to achieve earlier.
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