Formerly a regular at Old Trafford, the Belgian helped his current club, Inter, reach the finals just one day after his old club fell to Sevilla
Romelu Lukaku has weighed in on Manchester United‘s Europa League elimination at the hands of Sevilla, as the former Red Devils star believes his former club look “really good for next season”.
Man Utd were knocked out at the semi-final stage on Sunday, as they fell 2-1 to the Spanish side in Cologne.
In doing so, they failed to book a date with Lukaku’s Inter, with the former Man Utd striker firing a brace in his side’s record-breaking 5-0 win over Shakhtar Donetsk in their own semi-final clash on Monday.
Having watched his former club fall out of the competition before leading his current club within one step of a trophy, Lukaku offered his commiserations to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side, while adding that he believes stars like Mason Greenwood, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial have them on the right path to success.
“No, United tried their hardest. They had a really good season. Ole did a good job,” Lukaku told BT Sport.
“The players did really well. Greenwood is coming through, Martial and Rashford, I expected that. I’m really happy for them.
“They look really good for next season. I have no doubts.”
Lukaku continued his own spectacular form on Monday, scoring in his 10th consecutive Europa League match dating all the way back to his time at Everton.
The five-goal win saw Inter seal the most lopsided Europa League semi-final win ever, with Lukaku full of praise for how his team approached the match from the opening whistle.
“We knew that they were really good in combinations, short combinations,” he said. “And as long as we kept the centre of the defence close, I don’t think we would have any problems because the physicality of us was a bit too much for them.
“In the second half, we came through and showed our power and our patterns of play really disrupted them a lot.”
He added: “The team is doing well. Everybody is trying to do their best. We worked really hard in the little camp that we had. It was tough, but now you see the results of the hard work we put in.
“Physically and tactically, everyone is 100 per cent, so hopefully we can keep going.”
Next up for Lukaku and Inter is a date with Sevilla, a club that has won this competition five times over the last 15 years.
As a result, the Belgian says the Spanish outfit go into the game as favourites.
“At the minute, everything is going well, but we’re still fighting. There’s still a game to go,” he said.
“Records are nice to be broken, but, at the end of the day, we just want to win. The team that we play against, I think are the favourites, so we need to prepare ourselves very well. Recover, but then prepare ourselves.”
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