(Football news) This contest represents the first-ever meeting between the two teams; the Red Devils have lost just one of their previous nine home encounters with Dutch opposition.
Despite slumping to an eighth-placed finish in the Premier League last season, Manchester United are competing in the Europa League for the seventh time since it was rebranded in 2009 after winning the FA Cup final against rival Manchester City in May.
Manchester United have since experienced a mixed start to the new campaign, winning three, losing three and drawing one of their seven matches across all competitions, following up back-to-back wins over Southampton (3-0) and Barnsley (7-0) with a goalless stalemate at Crystal Palace in the Premier League on Saturday.
Erik ten Hag has claimed that his Manchester United side ‘ate Palace alive’ in the first half at Selhurst Park, but they ultimately lacked a cutting edge in the final third and were forced to settle for just a point, leaving them 11th in the top-flight standings after five games and three points behind the top four.
The Dutchman is now preparing for a Europa League opener against his beloved Twente, who he grew up supporting and also represented on three occasions in his playing career between 1989 and 2002. Manchester United will follow up Wednesday’s contest with seven more Europa League fixtures in the newly-expanded 36-team competition against Porto, Jose Mourinho’s Fenerbahce, PAOK, Bodo/Glimt, Viktoria Plzen, Rangers and FCSB.
Manchester United, who have lost just one of their last 24 home matches in the Europa League, will fancy their chances of success on matchday one against Twente and are among the bookmakers’ favourites to go all the way and win this year’s competition for the second time in their history since their triumph in 2016-17.
FC Twente finished as high as third in the Eredivisie standings last season for the first time in a decade and have since picked up 11 points from their opening six top-flight games in the new campaign, winning their last two matches against Heerenveen and Almere City.
After securing a routine 2-0 home victory over Robin van Persie’s Heerenveen, the Tukkers cruised to a thumping 5-0 away victory against Almere last weekend courtesy of goals from Sem Steijn (2), Sam Lammers, Ricky van Wolfswinkel and Anass Salah-Eddine.
Sitting fourth in the Eredivisie table and seven points behind perfect leaders PSV Eindhoven, Twente have now turned their attention to their first European campaign since competing in the 2012-13 Europa League group stage. They missed out on Champions League qualification earlier this term after losing 5-4 on aggregate to Red Bull Salzburg in the third qualifying round.
Joseph Oosting has been Twente’s head coach since July 2023, winning 27 of his 48 games in charge, and he is tasked with ending the club’s seven-game winless run in the Europa League at the Theatre of Dreams on Wednesday.
Success against English opposition has been hard to come by for the Tukkers over the years, though, as they have won just one of their previous 13 such meetings across all competitions – a narrow 1-0 home win over Fulham in the 2011-12 Europa League group stage.
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