a difficult night at the Friends Arena for Peter
Bosz's bright-eyed Ajax, as the Premier League
giants controlled the match from kick-off and duly
blunted the Dutch outfit.
Mourinho – who also lifted the trophy with Porto in
2003 – has now won 12 of his 14 finals as a
manager, and can breathe a sigh of relief having
pinned his hopes on Europe's secondary
competition as the only way to qualify for next
year's Champions League group stage.
United were heavy favourites going into the game,
and in raw context it wasn't too difficult to
understand why: in the last three seasons they
have spent £455 million on new players; Ajax, in
contrast, have shelled out £379m since the Second
World War.
That is, of course, largely down to their famed
reputation for producing in-house talent – a legacy
that was proudly on show in Sweden's capital. The
average age of Bosz's starting XI was just 22
years and 282 days, and included 17-year-old
centre-back Matthijs de Ligt, two 20-year-olds
alongside him in defence and 19-year-old striker
Kasper Dolberg.
Mourinho made 10 changes from the young side
that saw off Crystal Palace on the final day of the
Premier League season: Sergio Romero started in
goal as confirmed by his manager pre-match, while
Chris Smalling and Juan Mata were more
surprising choices ahead of Phil Jones and Jesse
Lingard.
UNITED THEY STOOD
United were not vintage in the first half, but started
the game well and could have been ahead after 10
minutes when Mata flashed a ball across goal that
Marouane Fellaini couldn't quite meet with his
head.
Ajax hit back through on-loan Chelsea man
Bertrand Traore, but within a few minutes found
themselves behind at the very stage that they were
on top. Jairo Riedewald's throw-in deep inside his
own half was poor, gifting possession to Mata. The
move that teed up Pogba in space was slick, but
the Frenchman needed a huge slice of luck –
otherwise known as a huge deflection off Davinson
Sanchez – to see his strike beat goalkeeper Andre
Onana.
Give Mourinho a lead and he will protect it better
than most – this, after all, is the boss who once
famously bragged that he could win any match
1-0. After the opener, United sat back and allowed
Ajax possession – just before the half-hour mark
Bosz's team had boasted just shy of 70%
possession – yet Romero was scarcely tested.
There was just one shot in the final 20 minutes of
the first half, in a period that had not been pretty.
MKHI'S SO FINE
Not that Mourinho will have cared, and not least
when United doubled their lead just two minutes
into the second period.
Armenian midfielder Mkhitaryan – booked in the
first half, and a candidate to be replaced at the
break – reacted quickest from a Smalling
knockdown to hook a clever effort beyond Onana.
The former Borussia Dortmund man has surely
been United's best player in the competition this
season, this being his sixth goal in the
tournament.
With United truly in control by this point, they
merely proceeded to do what all good Mourinho
sides do in such situations, and comfortably saw
out the rest of an ugly match to claim their second
trophy of the campaign.
This has been a testing season for Mourinho's
side, but Champions League qualification and two
trinkets make the Portuguese a winner yet again.
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