Burnley winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson has hinted that he is confident his side can produce a ‘cupset’ at Old Trafford in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie amid doubts over Manchester United’s post-World Cup fitness.
Vincent Kompany’s side are currently three points clear of Sheffield United at the top of the Championship, eight points clear of local rivals Blackburn Rovers in third and have scored the most goals, have the best goal difference, are joint-top on possession and boast the joint-most wins in the division. The City legend has completely revitalised the Clarets, who were famed for playing with a defensive style under former boss Sean Dyche.
Nonetheless, United will be without a multitude of players. Jadon Sancho remains on an individual training regime, whilst Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane – both United players who took part in the FIFA World Cup final – won’t return until next week. Meanwhile, those who came back in the quarter-finals only returned to training at Carrington today. And, with Burnley having won their two Championship games with ease since the break, alongside United’s 4-2 loss to Cadiz and the 1-0 defeat to Real Betis, Gudmundsson harbours hopes of a surprise Clarets win.
“Me and some of the others have done it a few times, we’ve got good results as well there. Hopefully we can do the same on Wednesday. They probably won’t have their best team and hopefully we can capitalise on that.”
Burnley have taken one win and three draws at Old Trafford since Gudmundsson joined the Clarets in 2016, including a shock win in January 2020 which marked just one of United’s three home losses in all competitions that season. And Gudmundsson remains confident of a result once more despite Burnley not being a Premier League team this campaign.
“Yeah, I mean it is a cup game, anything can happen! We will go into the game confident, obviously it is their first competitive game since the break, we will go there to try and get a great result and go through to the next round.
“I hope so. We’ve played two competitive games and they’ve only played friendlies, it isn’t the same to do that, for sure. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage.
“It can be difficult to get in the rhythm. We were quite sharp against QPR, so it depends on the team and what they’ve been doing. It will be interesting to see how United come out against us, we are full of confidence having played two, won two and they’ve played friendlies.
“But still, it’s Manchester United, a massive team with great players so we need to be on our top game if we want to go through.”
The winner will enter the quarter-finals, with just three games between that stage and a Wembley final.