STOCKHOLM: Manchester United and Ajax will both have a chance to burnish their proud European traditions and finish the season on a high note as they meet in the final of the Europa League in Stockholm on Wednesday.

The game pits the financial might and strong defence of a United team that has conceded just seven goals in the competition against a youthful Ajax team that is capable of offensive fireworks, but has struggled away from home.

“I feel no pressure,” Ajax manager Peter Bosz told a media conference over the weekend. “Everyone dreams of these games, so there’s no pressure, just a big opportunity.

“They have a bigger budget for sure and if they feel pressure because of that, then OK. We like to play good football and hope to win.

“Many in Holland said it was not possible for a Dutch team to play in the final because the financial difference in Europe between the big clubs and the Dutch clubs is so big now, but we managed it.”

Despite their monetary muscle, Jose Mourinho’s side struggled to keep up with the pace-setters in the Premier League and looked sluggish at times in the knockout stages of the Europa League.

Having finished outside the top four in England and lost striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic to a serious knee injury, United are now depending on victory at the Friends Arena in Stockholm to get them into next season’s Champions League.

Mourinho has made his priorities clear in recent weeks by resting players for league fixtures, but he claims United’s injury problems left him with no choice.

“It was not a gamble. It was a simple decision,” said Mourinho, who picked a team with an average age of 22 years and 284 days for Sunday’s season-ending 2-0 home win over Crystal Palace.

“When we lost players in a period of 17 matches in seven weeks, it was the impossible job. It was not a gamble, just a consequence of our situation.”

Mourinho won the UEFA Cup, as the Europa League was previously known, with Porto in 2003, but the two-time Champions League winner has been publicly dismissive of the competition in recent years.

Upon returning to Chelsea in 2013, Mourinho said of the tournament, which the London club had won the previous season: “I don’t want to win the Europa League. It would be a big disappointment for me.”

United’s performances during this season’s tournament suggested their players were not sure how much they wanted to win it either.

They lost their first two away games, against Feyenoord and Fenerbahce, needed extra time to beat Anderlecht in the quarter-finals and were given a scare by Celta Vigo in the semi-finals.

Now that the trophy is within touching distance, Mourinho has started to paint the tournament in a different light.

He has already masterminded a League Cup success and has suggested Europa League glory would mean United have had a more successful season than trophy-less top-four rivals like Manchester City and Liverpool.

In the words of defender Phil Jones: “People will say we’ve not had a good season, but would you rather finish second and win nothing or win two cups and be in the Champions League?”

Victory on Wednesday would enable United to complete their collection of trophies.

They can also become only the fifth club — after Juventus, Ajax, Bayern Munich and Chelsea — to have won the Champions League, the Europa League and the now defunct European Cup Winners’ Cup.

Ajax approach the game with none of the cloying pressure that United must contend with.

But the historic significance of the date will not be lost on Ajax as the final will be played 22 years to the day after their storied 1-0 victory over AC Milan in the 1995 Champions League final.

That Ajax team featured Danny Blind, whose son Daley will play for United on Wednesday, and Patrick Kluivert, father of current Ajax winger Justin Kluivert.

Ajax were pipped to the Dutch title by bitter rivals Feyenoord, and though they made next season’s Champions League qualifiers, they will be eager to add to their European trophy cabinet.

Regularly featuring players in their teens or early twenties, Ajax boast a fantastic array of attacking talent, with Danish striker Kasper Dolberg combining strength, touch and finishing to make him the fulcrum of their attack.

But their relative inexperience and poor away record in the tournament would suggest that they may struggle against a disciplined, physical United side that desperately needs a big win to salvage their season.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2017