Smalling wants United to settle Midtjylland tie in first leg

Chris Smalling wants Manchester United to settle their Europa League tie with Midtjylland in the first leg.

United visit Denmark on Thursday, with next week’s second leg at Old Trafford falling between their FA Cup trip to Shrewsbury Town and a crucial Premier League clash with Arsenal.

And Smalling is eager for Louis van Gaal’s side to put one foot in the last 16 with a strong display at the MCH Arena.

“It will definitely be the plan to bring home a decent lead, especially with us playing next Monday as well,” Smalling told MUTV.

“It’s a massive week and ideally if we can do more than half the job in our first game then it will be a lot more comfortable come next Thursday in the second leg.

“We know they’ll obviously be up for it as this is all they’ll have had their vision on for the last six or seven weeks, us being their next game, so we know we’ll have to play well to be on top.

“Obviously when you play teams from different countries you don’t see their players week in, week out or fully know the standard of their league.

“But after watching the video analysis this week, we’ll start to really know the Midtjylland players and then come gameday we’ll know their strengths and weaknesses inside out like any other team.”