Jose Mourinho reveals Paul Pogba's reaction to Man United's Europa League draw
JOSE MOURINHO admits Paul Pogba burst out laughing when the French superstar heard that he faces a brothers in arms Europa League tie in the new year.
Posted Tuesday, December 13, 2016 by Dailystar.co.uk
Jose Mourinho says Paul Pogba laughed when he found out about the Europa League draw
Manchester United face Saint-Etienne in the last 32 - and Paul faces brother Florentin in Europe’s second-tier cup.
That reunion - plus the fact that United do not face a gruelling travel itinerary as they head across the English Channel - pleased their boss.
Mourinho said: “That’s a nice thing.
Manchester United take on Saint-Etienne in the next round of the Europa League
"Paul was already laughing about it and for sure his brother is also laughing.
"It has happened a few times in the history football and it’s a nice thing.
"Then the good thing is the travel distance. We were very unlucky in the group phase, we had to go very far, it was very difficult to go to Turkey, Ukraine.
"Now we go to France because the flight is easy and it’s not an easy period, there are lots of games, so that is good.”
Florentin, 26, is a centre-half who joined Saint-Etienne from Sedan for £450,000 in 2012 - a fraction of the near £90 million paid for his younger brother last summer.
His club were one of the big powers of European football in the 1970s - losing the European Cup final to Bayern Munich in 1976.
Paul Pogba will play against his brother Florentin when Man United face Saint-Etienne
A year later, they played United in the old European Cup Winners’ Cup although the Reds had to play their home leg at Plymouth as punishment for crowd trouble in France!
Mourinho said: “Saint-Etienne is an historic old club with lots of tradition.
"People of my generation will never forget that Platini team and it will be difficult because every team now is a good team in the competition.
"For sure, Manchester United is one of the big names in the competition but we have two months without the Europa League, two months to forget it, then we will see.”
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