'Mental strength is key to reach the final'

The Portuguese manager spoke to the club's official channel MUTV on Thursday, imploring his players to 'enjoy Balaidos and be strong' in the mental aspect, to make things easier for the second leg at Old Trafford.

'The most important thing is to be ready for the occasion and to cope well with the moment, it’s very normal to see teams and players reaching crucial matches and lose identity and not be mentally strong enough to cope with the pressure of the moment', he declared.

'So it’s very important that the players are strong mentally and enjoy a difficult atmosphere here and then to wish that at home we get the best out of Old Trafford. When we get that our team has been phenomenal but when we didn’t get that the team was not so confident. Let’s hope we can have that at Old Trafford', the United boss reasoned.

Mourinho sees the Europa League as a way of salvaging a disappointing season. His side have been hit with a streak of injury blows in the last few weeks, but Paul Pogba, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling are expected to return against Celta.

'I want to say we are ready and we are. We just think about the game we have to play but since we qualified [for the semi-finals] after beating Anderlecht we have played lots of matches and matches that demand a lot from us whereas they have everyone at the maximum of their level', he said, when asked if Celta hold an advantage.

'The atmosphere will not be easy. It’s an atmosphere where the people really love the club and they support the players very, very much. And the way they play is as a team pressing a lot so they don’t leave much space to play. They have quality players in attack and they are a quality team, but we are ready for the match', he reiterated.