Manchester United welcome Fenerbahce to Old Trafford for Match Day 3 in the Europa League on Thursday 20 2016.
United and Fenerbahce are no strangers having first locked horns back in the 1996-97 edition of the Champions League. The Red Devils beat the Yellow Canaries 2-0 in Istanbul but Fenerbahce won the return fixture 1-0 thanks to a goal from Elvir Bolic – United’s first ever UEFA home loss.
The two sides met again in the 2004-05 group stage with United winning the home game 6-2 – Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick on his debut. Fenerbahce did however, manage to beat the Premier League giants 3-0 at the Sukru Saracoglu stadium with a hat-trick from Tuncay Sanli.
United boss Jose Mourinho is no stranger to Fenerbahce either. In fact the Istanbul giants were the first foreign club to have made an offer for the Portuguese manager back in 2003.
Speaking at a symposium in Istanbul in 2012 Mourinho was quoted by Turkish-football.com as saying: “I was coaching Porto and still young when Fenerbahce made me an offer. They were the first foreign club to make me an offer.”
Mourinho was introduced to Fenerbahce through the football agent Bayram Tutumlu and they held talks with Fenerbahce directors at the Hacidan restaurant in the well-to-do Etiler area of Istanbul but the Canaries ended up appointing Christoph Daum instead.
The Portuguese coach ended up joining Chelsea as his first foreign club and enjoyed a successful stint in London before taking charge of Inter, Real Madrid, Chelsea again and finally United.
Fenerbahce are currently managed by Dick Advocaat who replaced Vitor Pereira towards the end of the summer transfer window.
The Istanbul giants invested heavily last summer bringing in Robin van Persie and Luis Nani from United but failed to secure the championship finishing as runner-up instead.
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