Tottenham Hotspur coach, Jose Mourinho, has recognized Manchester United as favourites to win the Europa League after they were eliminated from the Champions League.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men failed to secure a point they needed to qualify for the UCL round of 16 by losing 3-2 to RB Leipzig on Wednesday night.

United who were defeated in last season’s Europa League semi-final by Sevilla could yet face their former manager, whose team is one of the strongest in the tournament so far.

In a pre-match press conference on Wednesday, Mourinho said: “Of course Manchester United become one of the top favourites to win the Europa League. The teams that dropped from the Champions League are always strong teams. They are teams that normally don’t belong to that level of the Europa League competition.

“And of course Manchester United is one of the top teams. The group was very hard, PSG, Manchester, Leipzig, the group was of course very hard. We all knew it was not going to be easy for any one of them, we knew from that group a top team would drop to the Europa League.”

Antwerp visits north London tomorrow for their last group game, though Mourinho’s men have already made it to the round of 32.

Mourinho won the competition with the Reds in May 2017 before being sacked 18 months later.