If they receive a booking in the first leg on Thursday night against Sevilla, Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro of Manchester United will be suspended for the return game.
On Thursday night, Erik ten Hag resumes his quest for significant hardware when United meets Sevilla at Old Trafford. After the match against Real Sociedad in the group stage and the knockout matches against Barcelona and Real Betis, Sevilla’s entry will mark the fourth appearance of a Spanish team in the competition.
Sevilla is the 16th-placed team in La Liga and has had a difficult domestic season, which would seem to make them the weakest of the four teams. However, Sevilla has plenty of European experience and will make this competition their top priority after beating PSV Eindhoven and Fenerbahce in previous rounds.
In addition, two United players will need to play with extra caution in the first leg the following week in order to avoid being completely missing from a challenging second leg at the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium.
With two cautions already under their belts, Casemiro and Fernandes will both enter play on Thursday, but a third will result in a ban for the next contest. After receiving three cautions during the group stages, Lisandro Martinez was given a one-game suspension for the first leg of the play-off match versus Barcelona.
While Casemiro’s bookings came against longtime rivals Barcelona, Fernandes received both of his yellow cards during the knockout rounds, first in the first leg against Betis and then in the second leg against Barcelona.
In what is expected to be a challenging second leg in Seville, both would be a major miss for United. Ten Hag is accustomed to adjusting to Casemiro’s absence; the Brazilian is now serving a four-game domestic suspension for receiving his second red card of the season after already receiving a three-match suspension in February.
Without their anchor, United has struggled in the middle, but in their victory over Everton on Saturday, Fernandes was used in a deeper position and was in charge of the game. Due to the Portuguese player’s constant presence in Ten Hag’s squad (he played more than 4,000 minutes versus the Toffees), his prospective absence would be more of an unknown.
Jordán, Rafa Mir, and Montiel, three players for Sevilla, will all be on the same side of the disciplinary fence on Thursday because they each have two yellow cards. During the first leg, neither team has any players who are suspended.