Man United and Besiktas are the teams to avoid in the Europa League, says Lyon director of recruitment

Lyon director of recruitment Florian Maurice travelled to Turkey for the Trabzonspor vs Besiktas clash over the weekend.

Speaking after the game Maurice revealed that he has been impressed with Besiktas.

Maurice also underlined that there were two teams they wanted to avoid, one was Manchester United the other was Besiktas.

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“The game in Istanbul is going to be tough, there is a great atmosphere at the Vodafone Arena,” Maurice was quoted as saying by Turkish-Football.

“To be honest there was one team we did not want to draw, Manchester United and one other side, Besiktas.”

United are the bookmakers favourites to win the Europa League, Lyon meanwhile are second favourites.

Maurice stated that Besiktas could not be underestimated considering they beat Napoli away and were agonisingly close to booking a place in the Champions League Last 16.

“They beat Napoli away, that rarely happens,” he added.

“At home they are very dangerous, they have players like Talisca, Aboubakar, Ozyakup and Quaresma who cannot be underestimated.”

Lyon welcome Besiktas to France for the quarter-final first-leg tie on Thursday.

United meanwhile take on Belgium giants Anderlecht in their first game of the last eight.

Besiktas meanwhile are domestic league leaders and beat Trabzonspor 4-3 over the weekend go move one step closer toward defending the title.

Lyon head into the clash having lost 4-1 against Ligue 1 strugglers Lorient.