Europa League: Pogba laughs off matchup with brother’s club

MANAGER Jose Mourinho has revealed that Paul Pogba laughed when he found out Manchester United would face St Ettiene of France in the Europa League round of 32 fixture.

The world’s most expensive player, Pogba will face elder brother, Florentin, a defender and Guinea international, over two legs as United look to better Ligue 1 outfit Saint-Etienne in the last-32 round of the competition.

United finished second in group A, behind Fenerbahce, after beating Zorya Luhansk of Ukraine and Mourinho is pleased at the shorter travelling time.

“That’s a nice thing,” he told reporters. “Paul was already laughing about it and for sure his brother is also laughing.

“It has happened a few times in the history of football and it’s a nice thing.”

Mourinho added: “The good thing is the travel distance,” he said. “We were very unlucky in the group phase, we had to go very far, it was very difficult to go to Turkey, Ukraine.

“Now we go to France because the flight is easy and it’s not an easy period, there are lots of games, so that is good.

“Then Saint-Etienne is a historic old club with lots of tradition. People of my generation will never forget that Michel Platini team and it will be difficult because every team now is a good team in the competition.

“For sure, Manchester United is one of the big names in the competition, but we have two months without the Europa League, two months to forget it, then we will see.”

United and Saint-Etienne meet on February 16, with the return leg a week later.