Three things to know about United opponents Young Boys

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Manchester United kick off their Champions League campaign with a trip to Swiss Super League champions Young Boys.

Alongside United and Young Boys, Europa League winners Villarreal and Italian side Atalanta complete Group F.

United beat Young Boys 3-0 and 1-0 under Jose Mourinho in the 2018/19 UCL campaign with Paul Pogba scoring twice in the away clash.

Ahead of tomorrow’s 5.45pm kick off at The Wankdorf Stadium, here are three things to know about our opponents…

Current form

After ending Basel’s dominance of Swiss football in 2018, Young Boys have won the league title four years in a row themselves.

However, the four-time defending champions have not started this season in blistering form. They currently sit fourth in the table with eight points from five games.

But they come into Tuesday’s clash off the back of a 4-0 home win against league leaders FC Zurich on Saturday. Their last game prior to the international break was a 1-1 draw away to rivals Basel.

Young Boys qualified for the Champions League group stage after beating Slovan Bratislava, CFR Cluj and most recently Ferencvaros in the qualifying rounds.

Key Players

American striker Jordan Siebatcheu has started the season strongly for the Swiss outfit. He has scored six goals from 12 matches, three of which have come in the Champions League qualifying stages.

With Jean-Pierre Nsame, who has been the Swiss Super League’s top goalscorer for the last two seasons and was linked with a summer move to Rangers, yet to feature this season (Transfermarkt), Siebatcheu has stepped up and looks set to improve on his tally of 12 goals last year.

Siebatcheu has been playing up front alongside Meschack Elia, who has also started the season in red hot form.

The Dominican of Republic striker has four goals and three assists from 10 games.

Harry Maguire and Raphael Varane will have to be at their best to thwart two players who will be full of confidence.

Familiar face as manager

United will be coming up against former Huddersfield Town manager David Wagner who took over as Young Boys boss this summer.

The German, who is good friends with his compatriot Jurgen Klopp from their time in Dortmund together, joined Schalke in July 2019 before he was sacked in September 2020 after a difficult spell which amassed 18 games without a win (BBC Sport).

Wagner was the manager of Huddersfield when the Terriers famously beat Mourinho’s United 2-1 in October 2017.

The 49-year-old will be coming against a very different Manchester United tomorrow with his new club though.

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