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Rob DawsonCorrespondent
SEVILLE, Spain — Erik ten Hag has warned his Manchester United players to learn their lesson and keep their cool against Sevilla if they want to book a place in the Europa League semifinals.
Ten Hag was critical of Antony following the quarterfinal first leg at Old Trafford, accusing the winger of helping to “warm up” Sevilla by getting involved in a spat with Marcos Acuna which eventually provoked the Spanish side’s fight-back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 during a frantic final six minutes.
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Sevilla will have the support of 45,000 fans at Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium on Thursday night and Ten Hag has said his team will need to manage the intense atmosphere if they are going to progress.
“Emotion, you have to use it as a tool and the timing of it is important, and in big games especially, when you use it and definitely not,” Ten Hag told a news conference on Wednesday.
“So focus on the game, focus on the best game you can as team and individual.”
United were 2-0 up inside 20 minutes in the first leg after Marcel Sabitzer‘s double, before being pegged back by two own goals from Tyrell Malacia and Harry Maguire.
“It is clear that it is a tie of two legs,” said Ten Hag.
“We played over 60 minutes quite well and the last 30 minutes we became passive. It is not acceptable, we know that, you see when you only play a game for 60 minutes you get punished.”
United have been boosted for the trip to Spain after Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw, Sabitzer and Malacia were passed fit to travel.
Lisandro Martinez has been ruled out for the rest of the season and Raphael Varane is also sidelined, leaving Ten Hag to pick a centre-back combination from Shaw, Maguire and Victor Lindelof.
“I will take my decisions tomorrow [Thursday],” said Ten Hag, who is also preparing for an FA Cup semifinal against Brighton at Wembley on Sunday.
“Today, we had training, we will see what the reaction is and we will take the decision. All the players, you want to keep all the players fit, so that is the objective. The main objective is to win the game.
“[Rashford] had one session with the team, but he had some sessions before individually.”
