Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wants to use Manchester United's famous Champions League comeback against Paris Saint-Germain as inspiration when his side takes on Manchester City in the EFL Cup. United goes into Wednesday's semifinal, second leg at the Etihad Stadium trailing 3-1 on aggregate.
That is a similar predicament to the one it found itself in against PSG in March, when it overturned a 2-0 first-leg loss at home to progress in the Champions League. Solskjaer knows United needs a flawless display if it is to repeat the feat, but draws hope from that PSG encounter as well as United's 2-1 Premier League derby win in December.
"It looked like it was over at half-time," Solskjaer said of the first leg. "I have to say the second part of that first half they outplayed us for a while and it's hard, but then we got the goal, back in it. We hoped for another one but we have got to go into the memory bank and think PSG."
"We have done it against good teams before and that gives us hope and the game in December [against City] gives us hope. We can't just defend, we have to try to keep the ball and make them run after the ball. It has to be a perfect performance but we've done amazing things before at this club and the PSG game is, for me, a very, very good example of how you can make a two-goal deficit work in your favour. We need the first goal."
Solskjaer did acknowledge United's Etihad win over City came under different circumstances. He added: "They are getting players back as well, we hit them last time when they were struggling a bit and since then they have played really well."
"We have lost Scott McTominay and Marcus Rashford since that game, a little bit lighter in the playing department. It has to be a perfect performance to win with two goals against such a good team away from home. For us it's not about away goals, we just need to score two more than them. It would be good not to concede first, because that makes it less difficult."
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