Ajax vs Manchester United: TV channel, stream, kick-off time, odds & match preview

Manchester United will play to win their second trophy of the season and qualify for the Champions League when they take on Ajax in the Europa League final on Wednesday.

The Red Devils travel to Stockholm to meet a side significantly less experienced but not short of talent in their second final of the 2016-17 campaign.

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Jose Mourinho's men triumphed in the EFL Cup back in March and the Portuguese's record in fixtures such as this is second to none, but he has the pressure of his entire first season at Old Trafford being judged a success or failure based on this result.

TV CHANNEL & LIVE STREAM

In the UK, the match will be available to watch live and for free on BT Sport Showcase as well as BT Sport 2. It will also be streamed for free on the BT Sport app and YouTube.

In the US, the match will be available to watch live on television on NBC and by stream via NBC Sports Live.

SQUADS & TEAM NEWS

Ajax are without left-back Daley Sinkgraven, who has recovered from an injury but was not considered fit enough to travel to Stockholm. Nick Viergever, who can also play in that position, is suspended so Jairo Riedewald is expected to start.

Peter Bosz's centre-back partnership will be 20-year-old Davinson Sanchez and 17-year-old Matthijs de Ligt but he will have to make a decision between Joel Veltman and Kenny Tete at right-back.

Potential starting XI: Onana; Veltman, Sanchez, De Ligt, Riedewald; Klaassen, Schone, Ziyech; Traore, Dolberg, Younes.

Mourinho will hope to only have to make one change to the team he selected for both legs of the semi-final tie against Celta Vigo, with Chris Smalling or Phil Jones replacing the suspended Eric Bailly at centre-back.

That looks most likely to be Smalling after he trained with the main group on Tuesday while Jones and Marouane Fellaini, who has been carrying a hamstring injury but is expected to play, worked out in a smaller side session that also involved Wayne Rooney.

Potential starting XI: Romero; Valencia, Smalling, Blind, Darmian; Fellaini, Herrera, Pogba; Lingard, Rashford, Mkhitaryan.

BETTING & GAME ODDS

United are 19/20 favourites to win in Sweden, according to Oddschecker, with Ajax priced at 18/5 and the draw available at 13/5.

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Marcus Rashford is the 11/2 favourite to score first, with Henrikh Mkhitaryan rated at 6/1 and Kasper Dolberg the top choice for the Dutch side at 19/2.

GAME PREVIEW

Manchester United may not be used to playing in the final of Europe's secondary competition, but this is an enormous match that will define their first season under Jose Mourinho.

A return to the Champions League would seem to be a necessity in order to convince a star like Antoine Griezmann to join Mourinho's rebuilding efforts this summer and create a genuine feeling, as a consequence, that progress is being made in returning the Red Devils to the summit of world football.

Another season in the Europa League on the back of a sixth-place Premier League finish, on the other hand, would leave the EFL Cup seeming like an entirely underwhelming return.

Mourinho's first season at Old Trafford can hardly be described as perfect but it would be hard to argue with two trophies and direct qualification for the Champions League group stage. Compare that to Liverpool, for example, where Jurgen Klopp is praised - and rightly so, many would argue - for winning nothing and booking a spot only in an earlier round of Europe's top competition.

Klopp deserves credit for the devastating attacking football Liverpool play at their best, of course, and the philosophical concerns around Mourinho's approach and style of play make for another (entirely legitimate) conversation. Hoist that trophy above his head on Wednesday night, though, and it will be difficult to claim the Portuguese has not proven he is still matched by few when it comes to the business of delivering silverware.