SPURS V UNITED Referee for Euro showdown revealed
UNITED’S Europa League final against Ajax in Stockholm will be refereed by Slovenian official Damir Skomina.
The 40-year-old from Koper has only been the man in the middle once before for a United match.
In September 2013 he officiated David Moyes’ first Champions League match in charge of the Reds at Old Trafford against Bayer Leverkusen.
There were no major issues on the night when Robin van Persie was the only United player shown a yellow card in the straight forward 4-2 group match win.
Skomina’s previous European final appointment was in charge of the 2012 Uefa Super Cup final between Chelsea – when United’s midfield ace Juan Mata played for the London club – and Atletico Madrid, and was the fourth official at Wembley for the 2013 Champions League final when an all-German affair saw Bayern Munich beat Borussia Dortmund.
England’s United contingent from Euro 2016 – Marcus Rashford, Chris Smalling and Wayne Rooney – won’t have fond memories of Skomina, although it was nothing to do with the Slovenian, as he refereed the Three Lions shock exit match against Iceland.
At least Skomina did award England a fourth-minute penalty from which Rooney scored in the humbling 2-1 defeat. JOSE Mourinho has promised to start Eric Bailly in United’s remaining Premier League games after his sending off in the Europa League semi-final.
Bailly was dismissed in the 87th minute of United’s second leg against Celta Vigo following a confrontation with John Guidetti and Facundo Roncaglia, who was also shown a red card.
The Ivory Coast defender will be suspended for the Stockholm final against Ajax and Mourinho seems likely to decide on Chris Smalling or Phil Jones to partner Daley Blind.
United’s only chance of appealing against Bailly’s expulsion is mistaken identity but Mourinho believes that is unlikely.
“I don’t know the incident, I didn’t see,” Mourinho reiterated. “I don’t want to see now, maybe tomorrow. But even if it was unfair, I don’t think UEFA rules will allow any chance of an appeal – so I don’t think he plays the final.
“And if he doesn’t play the final, he has to play the remaining matches in the Premier League and give rest to some of the others.”
Mourinho stressed he would field experimental sides in the remaining league matches against Tottenham, Southampton and Crystal Palace.
“I have to give some minutes to everyone because we have only 15 players,” he added. “So I have to play them.
“But I have to play them mixed. I have to play them by periods. And I don’t have another solution. In the Premier League we can only finish fifth or sixth, I think.
“I don’t think we can finish seventh and I don’t think we can finish fourth. So fifth or sixth. We can win a trophy and by winning that trophy we can play Champions League next season. So that’s the game.
“But obviously, like we did against Arsenal, we didn’t throw the match away. We had our chances to get a different result. And that’s what we are going to do. “We are not going to say that matches are not important. They are. But we have one that is more important than others. But the match on Sunday is important for us, too.” Bailly’s Europa League final suspension leaves Mourinho with a senior squad of just 19 available players after the Portuguese confirmed Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Marcos Rojo, Luke Shaw, Timothy Fosu-Mensah and Ashley Young would not feature again this season. Mourinho took reserves quartet Scott McTominay, Matthew Olosunde, Matty Willock and Demetri Mitchell down to Arsenal last week, where 19-year-old Axel Tuanzebe made his full competitive debut. Jose Mourinho