Harry Maguire fully expects Manchester United to prove their mettle and secure progress to the Champions League knockout phase at RB Leipzig.
Group H has gone down to the wire, with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men level on nine points with Tuesday’s hosts and last season’s finalists Paris St Germain.
United will seal their place in the round of 16 if they avoid defeat to Leipzig, but a return to Europa League action awaits in 2021 should they falter against a side thumped 5-0 at Old Trafford in October.
Asked if it was unacceptable for a club of such stature to fail to get out of the group, United captain Maguire said: “Well, of course we expect to go through in the group.
🗣️ @HarryMaguire93, who joins Ole on press conference duty today: "We go into tomorrow's game confident and the boys are ready to go."#MUFC #UCL pic.twitter.com/ihr4Sp6UpR
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“Whatever teams you put in our group, any four teams, we expect to go through.
“We expect to go into every game and win the game – that’s the tradition and that’s what the club does.
“I think, as a group of players especially, we fully expect to get out of the group.
“We took it to the last game. We’re in a good position, we’re confident and we look forward to the game.
“The one thing that we can do is look after the performance and normally the performance looks after the result. That’s what we’re looking to do.”
United rarely do things the easy way – as manager Solskjaer knows better than most – but so often down the years they have prevailed.
Maguire relishes such high-pressure games and takes belief from July’s crucial win at Leicester that sealed qualification for this Champions League campaign.
“First and foremost, I joined this club to play in the biggest games possible,” the world’s most expensive defender said.
“Your big players step up in the most pressured games, so for sure I think that’s a statement which shows over the years, that the big players step up in the big games.
“It’s a bit similar to the game at Leicester last year where we had to get a result to reach the Champions League and we managed to do that, so we’ll take confidence from that.
“But we feel ready, we feel prepared and we’re looking forward to it.”
