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Ruben Amorim Press Conference – Manchester United Manager on Viktor Gyokeres Transfer, Injury Updates Ahead of the UEL Semifinals

Ruben Amorim Addresses Gyokeres Transfer Speculation and Injury Concerns Before UEL Semifinals

image via - @ManUtd/ X

Manchester United will face Athletic Club in the semifinal of the Europa League this season. Being on a rough patch in the English competition, Manager Ruben Amorim’s only hope to glory this year will be the UEFA competition.

Ahead of their final four clash, Amorim addressed the media with some major updates on their scouting and injury. Athletic Club, who have been on a bold run since the start of the year, will be a tough cookie to crack. However, the Portuguese manager has expressed belief in his squad, terming them worthy of their current position in the Europa League.

🚨🇪🇺 The San Mamés awaits tonight… Athletic Club vs Manchester United. 😍🏟️

Capacity of 53,331. The stadium is situated next to a river which runs through the town of Bilbao. pic.twitter.com/6SWTSwWLoh
— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) May 1, 2025

‘Nico Williams is a special player’ – Ruben Amorim On What He Makes of the Athletic Club

Manchester United came through to the semifinals after a dramatic extra time win over Lyon. Thanks to two quick goals from Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire, the Red Devils beat the French side coming through a two-goal deficit.

When asked about how much it means to enter the final four through a thriller and could it boost the squad’s confidence, Amorim, in his pre-match conference, said:

“I think it’s more a club thing. Everybody knows when you play in Old Trafford, something special can happen, but then in the next game against Wolves we create a lot of situations and we didn’t score and that confidence came down a little bit. This season is a little bit like that. We are always searching for a great moment that can change a lot of things. We just need to be consistent. But it was a great night.”

Being asked about their opponents Athletic Club, Amorim talked in high regard of their talents like Nico Williams as he continued:

“I think they have a lot of good things. I’m not going to talk about the bad things, but they are really strong as a team, they are really intense, they are really aggressive. Even for a Spanish team, they are really aggressive on every duel.”

“They have great players one against one. Nico Williams is a special player. They are the best defence in Spain in the league and we are not scoring too many goals so it’s going to be a tough match for us”

Giving updates on the injury news, Amorim provided a few positives and when asked if Amad and De Ligt fit?

“To start, no. But they can be in the squad for the game and the rest of the players we have a game tomorrow then we have to train here Friday, so we need to prepare and play not just this game, but also prepare the next game against Brentford, so we took a lot of especially young kids to prepare the next game.” to the squad as he said.

Manchester United are the only club who are unbeaten in European football this season. 👀💪 pic.twitter.com/EffgpghtMl
— Football Tweet ⚽ (@Football__Tweet) April 29, 2025

Ruben Amorim on Gyokeres To Manchester United Talks

On being asked that Gyokeres has been mentioned as a potential transfer target. You brought him in from Coventry and nurtured him into one of Europe’s finest strikers, Is that the kind of project you want to do at United or are you looking to bring in someone with experience who can help the young strikers we already have?

“Our focus is to help our players that we have. Rasmus scored one goal in the last game. Again, I think you can see that Rasmus has the talent, Josh has the talent, Chido has the talent. We have to improve the players, but to improve the players individually we have to improve the way that we perform, the way we play.” said Amorim.

“We are far from being a really consistent team that can help the strikers to score many goals. We have a clear lack of goals and that has cost us a lot of points this season, we have to improve that [play] to help the strikers to improve.”

ALSO READ: Athletic Club vs Manchester United Europa League Semifinal 1st Leg – Injury News, Match Preview and Predicted Line-Ups

Manchester United will play in their first UEL semifinal since the 2020/21 season. Beating Roma on a 8-5 aggregate, the Red Devils lost to Villarreal on penalties in the finals. Aiming to be at the finals of Europa this year, Amorim will have a lot riding on the semifinals on Thursday.

Athletic Club has never lost to Manchester United in Europa League. The last time these two sides met was in the UEL Round of 16 2012/13. The Spanish side went through after beating United 5-3 on aggregate. It will be the first time Manchester United will look to triumph over them as they meet in the final four.

Athletic Club

Europa League

Manchester United

Ruben Amorim

UEL 2024-25

UEL Semi-Final

Mayur Dedwal

soccer

I’m a Sports Content Writer with expertise in football. Being a decade old football enthusiast and part-time coach, I try to bring to life to the articles in a statistical manner. Being around all kinds of sports updates and able to put in my perspective’s to the happenings in the world of football are few of the many things i like in doing what i do. You can find me playing Sunday leagues or Xbox on weekends!