During his post-match press conference, Jose supplied full details on those he left behind for the trip to Spain.

“[Chris] Smalling is injured,” he said. “[Victor] Lindelof is injured. [Matteo] Darmian is injured. [Anthony] Martial is injured. [Diogo] Dalot is injured. The only two players I could bring and I didn’t were De Gea and Matic. You are the first ones to make statements saying how many minutes Matic is playing, saying week-after-week he needs a rest. If he doesn’t have a rest when we’re already qualified, he will play until he explodes! Of course, it’s a normal option to leave him out.

”With David, it’s a question to give a match or not to [Sergio] Romero. Marcelino did the same with [Jaume] Domenech. Romero is such a good goalkeeper I even played him in the Europa League final a couple of years ago. Two chances to say they could play but, apart from that, nobody.