We started badly against Etienne, says Mourinho

Manchester, Feb 17: Manchester United coach Jose Mourinho's half-time talk was more about changing the attitude of his footballers who played a below-par first half during their 3-0 Europa League win against Saint-Etienne here.

Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic on Thursday scored a hat-trick to star in United's commanding win over Saint-Etienne in the round of 32 first leg tie.

"My first message was that it is impossible to play football at a high level without concentration, without intensity," Mourinho told the club's website after the match.

"After that I went through a couple of tactical details, I changed the team a little bit. But the most important thing was really the attitude because we started the game with an immediate back-pass to a striker to face (goalkeeper Sergio) Romero in a one-against-one, so we started pretty badly," he added.

Mourinho said it's not easy to do what the cerebral marksman Ibrahimovic is doing in England.

"He has scored so many hat-tricks in his career but this is a first for Manchester United," Mourinho said. IANS

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