Manchester United take on Lyon this week in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals. The French club are currently fifth in Ligue 1 and their greatest threat is former Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette.
Speaking to the club’s media this week, Diogo Dalot has talked about the importance of the game this week, as well as success in this tournament overall.
You can feel when we are playing Europa League games that the club and the fans really want it. So we just need to combine that energy and put it on the pitch to get towards the goal that we want. The pressure is always there at United. You start the season and you can see that the expectation is always that Man United has to fight for every trophy. So, it’s something normal, but obviously, it will have a little bit extra because you know that if you win the Europa League you can play Champions League next year. I think at the same time that that little extra pressure has to give you motivation to actually do it and actually want to do it, so I look at it like that.
You cannot teach a player, manager or member of staff how it is to be a Manchester United player or a person working at this club. You only realise once you arrive here. You can have an idea but once you step in, then you realise how big this club is, how much the pressure is and you start knowing how to deal with this type of situation. Obviously I’ve been here for quite a while now and have been through every scenario, I would say. I always try to keep really balanced, and I think that’s the best way of being consistent.
It doesn’t matter if you’re unbeaten if you don’t win it. Hopefully we can be unbeaten until the end, and win it! But it’s a good sign that we’ve been doing really well this season in the Europa League and we want to keep going until we play in Bilbao.
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