UEFA Europa League: Feyenoord vs Manchester United preview

Jose Mourinho's Manchester United kick off their Europa League campaign with a visit to the Netherlands as they face Feyenoord on Thursday. The two sides have not met since 1997, when Manchester United won both matches against Feyenoord in the Champions League group stage. Jose Mourinho has not been in this competition since 2003 when he won it with FC Porto. Feyenoord have enjoyed a perfect start to the season, with five wins out of five in the Dutch league. Moreover, they scored three goals per match on average and conceded just twice in those five games. Head coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst even afforded to rest a few first-team players last weekend for the match against the Red Devils. Eljero Elia, Kenneth Vermeer, Miquel Nelom and Sven van Beek will miss out through injury though. Manchester United suffered a painful defeat to rivals City in last weekend's derby, the match was won by Pep Guardiola and his men 2-1. Jose Mourinho is expected to give his backup players a chance to prove themselves against Feyenoord, with the likes of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Wayne Rooney set to be rested. Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Jese Lingard were not included in the squad for the trip to the Netherlands, while Luke Shaw is injured. Probable line-ups: Feyenoord: Jones - Karsdrop, Botteghin, Kongolo, Woudenberg - Ahmadi, Kuyt, Vilhena - Berghuis, Jorgensen, Toornstra Manchester United: De Gea - Fossu-Mensah, Bailly, Smalling, Rojo - Herrera, Carrick - Martial, Mata, Depay - Rashford My prediction: Manchester United to win 2-1. Here are the odds for the match at Bet365: Feyenoord win - 4.33 Draw - 3.60 Man United win - 1.85