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The Manchester United manager presided over a narrow Europa League semi-final first leg win over Celta Vigo on Thursday and believes winning that competition represents his side's best chance of qualifying for the Champions League next season.
The Red Devils take in a 1-0 aggregate after Marcus Rashford's victor gave United the win in the first leg in Vigo last week.
In-form Rashford, who also scored a dramatic extra-time victor against Anderlecht in the quarter-finals, scored a bending a free-kick into the corner in the 67th minute to ensure United take an away goal and a massive advantage going back to Old Trafford in a week's time for the semi-final second leg.
"It was a good result for us against Celta, and a very important goal", he told MUTV.
"So it's very important that the players are strong mentally and enjoy a hard atmosphere here and then to wish that at home we get the best out of Old Trafford".
The second leg is at Old Trafford next Thursday with the winners of the tie meeting Ajax or Lyon in the final.
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"Since the first minute, we tried to win the match, but the team was strong and compact".
The Premier League side take a one-goal lead back to Old Trafford to face Celta Vigo thanks to Rashford's wonderful freekick at the Estadio Municipal de Balaídos.
A trip to Arsenal awaits on Sunday and Mourinho could rotate his side given the match comes between European semi-final clashes against Celta Vigo, with Europa League glory offering Champions League qualification and a place in the history books.
"At the end of the day it's a set-piece that gets us".
"In April we played nine matches, seven of them in the Premier League and we had too many problems", he added. "And you could see they made 15, 20 minutes be three minutes of football. A clean sheet is always nice for the defence and I think we did well".
Rashford will join the sidelines, along with a numbered of injured teammates, although some of them are close to returning to action.
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