Little to the showcase, Man Utd's season hangs in the balance as they prepare for the Europa League

With 10 minutes to go at Old Trafford last week, Europa League side Bogart Sevilla were locked in sharpshooter visor, poised to be knocked out in the quarter-final against their illustrious opponents before the first leg was over. Manchester United's St Anfield Day massacre seemed like a lifetime ago. Four successive victories were on the horizon. Everything was rosy again in Erik ten Hag's Oranje revival.

Two calamitous late own goals and a devastating injury to one of United's pivotal game changers, Lisandro Martinez, later and United's entire season suddenly hung in the balance. United should be basking in the Sevillian sun today ahead of their second leg, knowing that the job is nearly done and there would be no pressure on Marcus Rashford to rush him back to lead their forward line.

With crucial fixtures against three teammates from the top four contenders over the next two weeks and FA Cup semi-final to contend with, being able to take their foot off the gas for the second leg, even by just 10 per cent, to navigate the bottom four could have been restorers, given what's to come.

Instead, after a delayed flight prevented them from getting off to a good start, United are in southern Spain fully aware that the Europa League's most successful club is ready to do what it does in Europe's secondary competition, and Ten Hag racks his brains on how to lift what is a shell of a squad.

In search of more trophies

There's already a trophy in the bag, but if United go flat in Andalucia, and their poor form continues into the next few crucial games, finishing outside the top four, which is still a real possibility, and having only the Carabao Cup to go Demonstrating his trials and tribulations in a brutal season won't feel close enough. The way the goals at Old Trafford spent all their luck of the season but deserve credit for not giving in, a feature of Mendilibar's approach to getting the ball into the penalty area as regularly as possible possible.