Recommended bet
1pt under 1.5 goals in St Etienne v Man Utd
St Etienne v Manchester United (1700 GMT)
There seemed to be a bit of a party atmosphere ahead of a game which saw brothers Paul and Florentin Pogba go head-to-head - Mourinho watched this carry over onto the pitch as his side made an annoyingly sloppy start which gave the visitors a little bit of a springboard at Old Trafford.
They could not turn it into an advantage as a handful of chances flashed over and wide of the target but they realistically remained right in the tie until 15 minutes from the end when Zlatan Ibrahimovic tapped home the second of his three on the night.
Mourinho might not have been so forgiving if St Etienne had shown a more clinical aspect to their finishing but the clear advantage does give him some flexibility in terms of team selection, keeping in mind there is an EFL Cup final against Southampton fast approaching at the weekend.
That said, he admitted in the build-up he will go with a strong enough XI to make sure there are no slip-ups and a dominating start - opposed to the one last week - from which they could nick a goal could make for a much more relaxed evening at Stade Geoffroy-Guichard.
Wayne Rooney is still battling a muscular injury and has been ruled out already while the talismanic Ibrahimovic, who has a fantastic scoring record against the hosts throughout his career, will surely be given a break to get him fully freshened up for Wembley on Sunday.
St Etienne boss Christophe Galtier felt aggrieved his side suffered such a hefty defeat but if you are going to squander chances before the break then it is hardly realistic to expect a Mourinho team to give you the green light and take up where you left off after the interval.
He is in a tricky situation with his side on life support in the tie overall and the obvious conclusion to draw would be to quietly pull a veil over this and concentrate on chasing a top-four spot in Ligue 1.
But Galtier feels the competition still deserves some respect and he won't simply want to gift-wrap the visitors another victory and end a successful three-match streak on home soil.
It will be utterly embarrassing if United don't progress from this position and they should also have enough resources to win the game - a victory to nil is a reasonably eye-catching price at 12/5.
But I am not expecting any real fireworks to be perfectly honest and the option I slightly prefer is under 1.5 total goals for a game that could soon see both simply going through the motions.
Prediction: St Etienne 0-1 Manchester United
