Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho was already irritated over the club’s packed fixture list, and it just got worse after the Europa League draw.
The Portuguese tactician and his United players face a 4,266-mile round-trip when they take on Russian side FC Rostov in the round-of-16 in the Europa League next month.
While they avoided the likes of Roma and Lyon, who incidentally will face each other in the tie of the round, it sets up a difficult week in March where Mourinho will be under pressure.
The games are scheduled to be played on March 9 and March 16, with an FA Cup meeting with Mourinho’s former club Chelsea sandwiched in between on March 13.
It comes just a day after he moaned about the fixture list, where he even predicted the scenario where United would have to travel to Russia after the Chelsea game.
Having lost Michael Carrick and Henrikh Mkhitaryan to injury this week which has put their participation in the EFL Cup final in doubt, the upcoming fixture list will not best please Mourinho who will undoubtedly react to it at some stage.
“Imagine we play Chelsea on Monday (March 13) and go to the second match in Europe in Russia, Turkey or Greece? I think once more the interests are going in front of the clubs and English football’s interests, and nobody cares about it,” he was quoted as saying by The Daily Mail.
It’s a nightmare that he would have hoped to have avoided, but unfortunately for Mourinho and his squad, it’s one that they’ll have to face up to next month as they desperately try to keep their hopes of winning trophies alive.