Harry Maguire exclusive: Man United in the Europa League to win it

Harry Maguire was one of Manchester United’s best performers in his team’s 1-0 win at Real Betis in the hugely atmospheric Estadio Benito Villamarin on Thursday.

It came on the day he made Gareth Southgate’s England squad again for the Euro 2024 qualifiers against Italy and Ukraine.

Thursday's Europa League last-16 second leg was the sixth game Maguire has started for United since the World Cup finals, where he played well for England. United have won all six, but while he is club captain, Maguire isn’t the first-choice starter that he was in his first four seasons at Old Trafford.

The National spoke to him after the game in Seville.

It was an important one. We performed well at Old Trafford, especially in the second half. Betis are a good team, they’re fifth in La Liga, but the second half at Old Trafford was electric.

Tonight, we knew how important the first goal would be and how the first 20 minutes of the game were so important. Away from home in Europe is totally different from a home tie and we spoke about that in the dressing room. The manager has got a lot of European experience and knew exactly what he was talking about and we have a lot of players with European experience. That showed.

Betis came at us with intensity and a high tempo for those first 20 minutes but we matched them and after that I felt we controlled the game. That’s not easy to do here. It’s a great, loud stadium. I played here with England when we got that famous victory against Spain. Betis are a good club with a good team. They’re pushing to play in the Champions League next season, yet we went through the tie comfortably 5-1 on aggregate and I felt we controlled both games.

We’re in it to win it. If you look at the last 5-10 years, the