‘This will be a difficult tie’ – Manchester United boss Skinner looks ahead to SK Brann tie | OneFootball

Manchester United head coach Marc Skinner says that his side’s UEFA Women’s Champions League third qualifying round tie against Norwegian club SK Brann is no easy assignment.

The Red Devils travel to Norway later today ahead of the first leg. The overall winners will qualify for the all-new league phase.

SK Brann top the Norwegian Toppserien table after winning 16 of their 19 league matches this season. They have conceded just five goals in those games. When speaking in the pre-match press conference, Manchester United boss Skinner highlighted SK Brann’s qualities and said that his side must make them do plenty of defending.

“When you watch some of their games, because they’re such a dominant team in Norway, they tend to have a lot of the ball, so you don’t really see them defend that much. We know about Signe Gaupset in midfield and also their front-line can be really aggressive. They play a good style of football, so this will be a difficult tie.

“We’ve watched their recent games and we’ve watched their two recent qualification games as well. We know the team that we’re playing against. We’ve got to be professional, give high energy. I think around 14,000 tickets have been sold, so it’s going to be a raucous atmosphere. The Hammarby game probably prepared us for that.

“I expect similar quality [to Hammarby]. They can score goals and they can defend as well, so it’ll be tough for us. I want us to be the team that makes them defend a little bit more.”

Manchester United forward Elisabeth Terland returns to her former club in red-hot goalscoring form having netted five goals in all competitions already this season. Skinner said that the player will be ultra-professional on her return to Brann Stadion.

He said “It’s a nice story that she’s going back, Lisa [Naalsund] is as well, but Liz is ultra-professional; she will have all of those feelings but she will subdue them to make sure that we try to win the game.

“I’m sure that she will try and score over there and pay respect to the country where she started.”

SK Brann are now under the leadership of former Crystal Palace boss Leif Gunnar Smerud after taking over from Martin Ho mid-season and Skinner spoke positively about the man in the opposition dugout.

He said “When he’s took the team on, they’re still aggressive, they still want to attack. They’ve got a mix of style but you can see that they’re really well-coached.

“I don’t know whether he got the full WSL experience because he came in late [at Crystal Palace] but he’s clearly a good manager.

“Some of our players have worked with him, he previously worked in the senior Norway set-up both male and female. Teri [Elisabeth Terland] speaks really highly of him and so do some of the other girls.

“I’m looking forward to it, I think it’ll be challenging. I think he has brought his own qualities to that group and with Martin [Ho] leaving mid-season, he has continued the run to the league title. I think it’ll be a good challenge.”

Manchester United’s UEFA Women’s Champions League third qualifying round, first leg fixture against SK Brann kicks-off at 6pm on Thursday evening.