after the Danes secured a "breakthrough" win
over fellow Premier League side Southampton in
last summer's play-offs
Midtjylland are not approaching their Europa
League fixture against Manchester United with
any sense of trepidation, Mikkel Duelund has
told Goal .
The young attacking midfielder, who has scored
eight times in 10 appearances for Denmark
Under-19s, is one of his country’s great hopes
for the future and is itching to show the world
just how good he is when Louis van Gaal's side
visit the MCH Arena on Thursday.
Taking on the 20-time English champions, who
were dumped out of the Champions League,
promises to be the biggest evening of his career
so far, but it is a challenge he will relish.
“I always enjoy a tough challenge and they don’t
come much bigger than a great club from the
best league in the world,” Duelund says.
“But it’s not only an exciting experience - to me
it is that stage and that level where I want to be
in the future.”
While the teenager is aware that his side are
anything but favourites, Midtjylland have
already claimed one English scalp in the form of
Southampton this season.
As well as knocking Ronald Koeman's men out
in the play-offs, they also came close to beating
Manchester City in the Uefa Cup of 2008, when
they lost on penalties, so Duelund is hopeful
they can cause another upset.
“Eliminating Southampton was a kind of
international breakthrough for us, it was our first
really big result,” he explained.
“A few years ago the club came extremely close
to eliminating Manchester City, but now we
succeeded, and that gave us a lot of confidence.
Now we will do everything to repeat that against
United, and I can promise you, that we do have
a lot of respect for them but we are not scared.
“I know we are not favourites - not at all. And it
is very early in the season for us after our long
winter break. But football is about so much
more than just the quality of the individual
players, and as a team we have a great appetite
and we are difficult to beat.
“To be honest we feel we haven’t peaked yet as
a team. I am pretty sure that our English club
owner would love to see us beating a huge
English club like Manchester United.”
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