Mourinho Confirms Captain Antonio Valencia and Nemanja Matic To Start In Wembley FA Cup Clash
Manchester United will clash with Tottenham Hotspur at their temporary Wembley Stadium home ground in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday afternoon.
The two teams were in action midweek with Tottenham Hotspurs drawing 1-1 at Brighton & Hove Albion on Tuesday and Manchester United beating Bournemouth 2-0 the next day at the Vitality stadium.
The red devil’s boss Jose Mourinho fielded a largely rotated squad for the Bournemouth game at the Vitality Stadium, fringe players like Phil Jones, Luke Shaw, Matteo Darmian and Marouane Fellaini all started against Bournemouth, while first-team regulars like Nemanja Matic and Romelu Lukaku came on later in the match as substitutes.
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Just before the Bournemouth game, Jose Mourinho started that fringe players have an opportunity to earn themselves a place in Saturday’s FA Cup starting lineup. Judging by performance on Wednesday night, players like Anders Herrera, Paul Pogba, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling well have earned themselves a starting berth at Wembley.
In a press briefing after the Bournemouth game, Jose Mourinho confirmed that Captain Antonio Valencia and Nemanja Matic who were rested in midweek will be starting in the FA Cup semi-final clash with Tottenham Hotspur in Wembley on Saturday.
“Obviously I am going to change the team, I am not going to repeat this team. I gave a rest to [Nemanja] Matic, I gave a rest to Antonio Valencia, with the objective of at least having a couple of players fresh. But all of the players told me they are here and they want [to play].”
In the goalkeeping area, Sergio Romero who is the Cup competition goalkeeper is currently sidelined so David de Gea is almost-certain to start, whilst both Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez who were both rested against Bournemouth should also start in Wembley.
