Manchester United favourites to win Europa League, says Jose Mourinho
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"United are one of the top teams. The group was very hard with Paris St Germain and Leipzig. We knew it was not going to be easy for any of them."
Manchester United will now compete in Europa League after being knocked out of the Champions League. Spurs boss Jose Mourinho feels that Man Utd's will be the favourites to win the Europa League.
United needed a draw to qualify for the last 16 but were punished for a sloppy start and slumped to a 3-2 defeat, a result that left them third in the group to ensure they drop down to Europe's second-tier competition.
"The teams that drop from the Champions League are strong and normally don't belong to the level of the Europa League," Mourinho, who guided United to the Europa League trophy in 2017, told reporters ahead of Thursday's home game against Antwerp.
"United are one of the top teams. The group was very hard with Paris St Germain and Leipzig. We knew it was not going to be easy for any of them."
Mourinho went on to condemn the incident that took place during the PSG and Istanbul Basaksehir match. The match was suspended in the 13th minute when fourth official Sebastian Coltescu was accused of directing a racist term towards the Turkish club's assistant coach.
"Every form of racism has to be fought and never accepted," he said. "To be involved, indirectly, not directly in the game that will become quite iconic is not a nice thing. The fourth official only he can express his feelings.
"Of course, he made an unacceptable mistake but only he can open his heart, apologise and accept the consequences."