Ralf Rangnick has admitted it was “painful” for him and his Manchester United players to watch Atletico Madrid in the Champions League in midweek.
United were of course knocked out of Europe by Diego Simeone’s side, with the Reds rather meekly giving up their place after a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford. Atletico went on to face Manchester City in the quarter-finals, with the Blues progressing after a gruelling couple of legs.
Not only will seeing Atletico in action during the week have been a painful reminder to United fans of their exit from the competition. It will have also served as a sign of what they’re set to miss out on next season.
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The Reds’ hopes of qualifying for next season’s competition are hanging by a thread, with six points separating them from the top four with just seven games remaining. While they still have a slight chance though, Rangnick is hoping they can use the midweek action as motivation to turn around their recent poor form against Norwich this afternoon.
“For me, it’s rather painful and it hurts to see Atletico Madrid play against Manchester City,” Rangnick admitted to the club’s website.
“We should have been there ourselves. In order to think and behave like that [to be determined to finish in the top four], the players don’t need to see the games on TV. I think everybody knows that those are the moments you play for and you want to play in the Champions League, especially at a club like Manchester United. It’s up to us to make that happen again.”
Rangnick added: “Mathematically it can happen, but it doesn’t help us at all if we speculate about that. It’s about us winning our own games, that’s the only thing we can influence and we can affect ourselves – our own performance and results. We need to make sure that we start winning games again.
“I said before the game against Leicester that we needed nine points out of next three games, so far we have one point out of six from Leicester and Everton. So there is no point speculating about whether it's possible or not. Yes, mathematically it might still be possible, but we have to start winning games and we need to do that on Saturday.”
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