Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer happy to sacrifice Europa League advantage
Solskjaer would be happy to play one leg on neutral ground
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would prefer Manchester United’s Europa League tie with Real Sociedad to be played over one leg rather than being split over two games in Turin and Manchester.
United were due to travel to San Sebastian for next Thursday's away leg of the last-32 but will instead play at Juventus' Allianz Stadium due to coronavirus travel restrictions between the UK and Spain.
The second leg is still due to be played at Old Trafford the following week, potentially giving United an advantage over their La Liga opponents, but Solskjaer would prefer a single knock-out tie on neutral ground.
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"The different governments and the travel in Europe at the moment is difficult," he said. "It’s not a decision we made but when one game is on a neutral venue, it’s a disadvantage to the team that doesn’t have the home game.
"That’s out of our hands, we can’t say we’d go to Turin and just play one game. I wouldn’t mind that at all. It would be one game less.
"That’s what we did last season. We met somewhere neutral and made it a tournament.
"Of course, home and away, if we've got to keep that going... as I said, we do have a little advantage and a disadvantage for Sociedad to have their home game in Turin.
"For me, I wouldn’t stand in the way of [changing] that. There's probably other reasons why we don’t."
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