Manchester United must prove they merit a place in the Champions League last 16 by beating Wolfsburg in their crucial group tie, says boss Louis van Gaal.<\/p>\n
The Red Devils will qualify with a win in Tuesday’s final Group B game, or if PSV Eindhoven lose to CSKA Moscow.<\/p>\n
But PSV will advance if they better United’s result in Germany.<\/p>\n
“It is very important for the club to continue in the Champions League,” said Van Gaal. “We can’t rely on the result of the other game.”<\/p>\n
United are aiming to reach the knockout phase in their first appearance back in the Champions League since failing to qualify for European competition under David Moyes in 2013-14.<\/p>\n
After losing their opening tie at PSV, Van Gaal’s side have won two and drawn two to leave their last-16 fate in their own hands.<\/p>\n
Goals from Juan Mata and Chris Smalling helped them come from behind to beat Wolfsburg 2-1 in the reverse fixture.<\/p>\n
“You have to prove yourselves, as a club, as a team and as players,” added Van Gaal, who won the competition with Ajax in 1995.<\/p>\n
United, who are three-time European champions, will drop into the Europa League if they finish third behind Wolfsburg and PSV.<\/p>\n
‘Goals will come for United’<\/strong> Skipper Wayne Rooney will miss the Wolfsburg trip with an ankle injury, leaving 20-year-old France international Anthony Martial as their only recognised striker.<\/p>\n “When you are creating chances you shall finish those kind of chances,” said the 64-year-old Dutchman.<\/p>\n “That’s why we have that belief. It’s a matter of time and I hope we can prove it against Wolfsburg.<\/p>\n “I have the experience as a manager that the goals shall come.”<\/p>\n No pressure on Martial – Van Gaal<\/strong><\/p>\n Martial scored four goals in his first four matches following his \u00a336m transfer from Monaco in September, but has netted just once in his past 13 matches. “But I am very convinced that he will continue with his performances, and that he shall score at the right moment again.<\/p>\n “You cannot expect a 20-year-old player coming to the Premier League to score every week. I didn’t expect it either.<\/p>\n “When he came he was accelerating in the start of his campaign at Manchester United. I know that and I have to explain it to everybody because he doesn’t need that pressure to score every match.”<\/p>\n ‘Man Utd had better pay attention’<\/strong><\/p>\n Wolfsburg know they will reach the Champions League knockout phase for the first time with a draw, but coach Dieter Hecking insists his team will not be content to play for just a point. “We want to win, and I think my players want to win too. We pay attention to a lot of things, but Manchester United had better pay attention to us,” said Hecking.<\/p>\n “I don’t feel any pressure, I am just really looking forward to this game and I know my team will do all they can to make history.<\/p>\n “We’ve not considered progressing with a draw.”<\/p>\n Wolfsburg are currently fifth in the German top flight and boast a formidable record at the Volkswagen Arena, where they lost for the first time in 29 home Bundesliga matches on Saturday, an injury-time defeat by Borussia Dortmund.<\/p>\n And Wolfsburg’s former Chelsea forward Andre Schurrle says it is important to score first against United to boost their chances of avoiding another defeat.<\/p>\n “If we can get it, then psychologically it will be good for us because we’ll get a little bit more space,” said the 25-year-old Germany international.<\/p>\n “It’s going to be difficult to get the ball so we have to be very aggressive.<\/p>\n “This is a great game – we are going to give everything we can, really go for it.”<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Manchester United must prove they merit a place in the Champions League last 16 by beating Wolfsburg in their crucial group tie, says boss Louis van Gaal. The Red Devils will qualify with a win in Tuesday’s final Group B game, or if PSV Eindhoven lose to CSKA Moscow. But PSV will advance if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":147536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-172713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172713","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=172713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/172713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/147536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=172713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=172713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=172713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nVan Gaal’s team were booed off after Saturday’s 0-0 draw with West Ham at Old Trafford, with home supporters frustrated at seeing their team fail to score for the fifth time in nine matches.<\/p>\n
\n“We have to give him time and that’s always difficult when you are playing for a team like Manchester United because the expectations are very high,” said Van Gaal.<\/p>\n
\nLast season’s Bundesliga runners-up will finish as group winners if they beat United.<\/p>\n