{"id":8520,"date":"2026-02-24T06:50:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:20:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/24\/sesko-and-lammens-allow-man-utd-to-dream-of-champions-league\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T06:50:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T01:20:04","slug":"sesko-and-lammens-allow-man-utd-to-dream-of-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/2026\/02\/24\/sesko-and-lammens-allow-man-utd-to-dream-of-champions-league\/","title":{"rendered":"Sesko and Lammens allow Man Utd to dream of Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/topics\/c8gr7dqlp5pt\">Simon Stone<\/a>Manchester United reporter at Hill Dickinson Stadium<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published39 minutes ago<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#comments\">26 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Michael Carrick had a neat way of describing Benjamin Sesko&#x27;s assimilation into life at Manchester United.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He is growing as a player,&quot; said United&#x27;s head coach. &quot;Sometimes it&#x27;s big steps, sometimes it&#x27;s little steps. He has taken some huge ones recently.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The confidence and belief he is playing with is great to see.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>The mighty strides Sesko has taken in United&#x27;s latest two games have placed the club in a superb position to cement a return to the Champions League after a two-year absence.<\/p>\n<p>Without the Slovenian&#x27;s contributions off the bench, United would have lost at West Ham on 10 February and drawn with Everton on Monday on their first visit to Hill Dickinson Stadium.<\/p>\n<p>Sesko&#x27;s goals have put Carrick&#x27;s men out on their own in fourth spot, three points behind Aston Villa and three ahead of Chelsea and Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p>If his stoppage-time volley to earn a point at West Ham was a thing of aesthetic beauty, his latest effort in the 71st minute of the 1-0 win at Everton was a feat of physical excellence.<\/p>\n<p>It was a combination of endurance, running 70 yards at top speed after laying off a pass to Matheus Cunha, and calmness, to steady himself and coolly slot home  Bryan Mbeumo&#x27;s square pass.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;It was a great finish, a ruthless finish,&quot; said Carrick. &quot;I like the way he put it away with real confidence.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Watching the game for Sky Sports, former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher looked at the goal admiringly.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Sesko has gone over 80 yards and then finishes,&quot; Carragher said. &quot;You expect him to be breathing heavily and panting after that. But no, he still has the energy to really celebrate.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Sesko has taken his goals tally to eight for the season.<\/p>\n<p>Remarkably, he only scored twice under Ruben Amorim, who signed him from RB Leipzig for \u00a373.7m in August 2025.<\/p>\n<p>Now he has six in his latest seven games, starting with three in two matches while Darren Fletcher was in interim charge after Amorim&#x27;s dismissal at the start of January.<\/p>\n<p>That return has led many observers to feel Sesko is unlucky not to have made the starting XI for any of the six games Carrick has had at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>United&#x27;s boss understands the debate. But he doesn&#x27;t feel it is especially important.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I get why everyone is talking about it and making a big deal of it, but it is not always as extreme,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I have got a really good relationship with Ben. We have had some good conversations, and he is in a good place.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He obviously wants to play, but we have got some good forwards and I can&#x27;t speak highly enough of how he has been.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>For Sesko, it is about delivering when his manager asks \u2013 and he is brimming with the confidence to do that.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I believe in me and so do the other players,&quot; Sesko told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;They know what they are going to get when I arrive in the game. Whether that is five minutes or 90 minutes, it doesn&#x27;t really matter. It&#x27;s about showing I can deliver if I possibly can and I&#x27;m really happy with that.&quot;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/live\/cre0q57220lt\">\n<p>Sesko comes off bench to score Man Utd winner at Everton<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/ce8g4r7yrzpo\">\n<p>&#x27;I&#x27;m not Schmeichel in disguise &#8211; I am just Senne Lammens&#x27;<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published31 October 2025<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/articles\/c99jmn9mmljo\">\n<p>Who has made Troy&#x27;s Premier League team of the week?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Published58 minutes ago<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>&#x27;Brilliant&#x27; Lammens earns Van der Sar comparisons<\/h2>\n<p>If Sesko broke Everton&#x27;s hearts at one end of the field, another summer recruit, Senne Lammens, did it at the other.<\/p>\n<p>The Belgian goalkeeper kept out a blockbuster strike from Michael Keane, which Moyes felt sure was going in, then dealt superbly with a series of corners dropped under his crossbar as Everton literally tried to force an equaliser.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Their goalie was brilliant tonight,&quot; was Moyes&#x27; blunt reaction.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The save he made from Michael, the way he dealt with corner kicks. The pressure we had. For me, their goalkeeper was the best player.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Carrick is the one who benefits though, just as he is benefiting from the decision of United&#x27;s recruitment department to block Amorim&#x27;s calls to bring in Emi Martinez from Aston Villa on summer transfer deadline day and instead place their faith in a relatively young \u00a318.1m goalkeeper with just one full season of senior football in Belgium behind him.<\/p>\n<p>Lammens is 23. Sesko is 22. United might not quite be winning trophies with kids, but they have a young generation that is beginning to blossom.<\/p>\n<p>It was brought to Carrick&#x27;s attention after the Everton game that his former United team-mate and all-time great goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar was analysing the game on TV with Carragher.<\/p>\n<p>Carrick skilfully navigated the question of whether there are comparisons to be drawn between the two men.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I&#x27;ve got to be careful what I say,&quot; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;I don&#x27;t want to be comparing them because I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s fair to Senne. But there&#x27;s definitely similarities.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;You want a goalkeeper to be reliable and trustworthy. Instead of creating a chaos, you want him to take the chaos away and calm things down. I think Senne is that.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;He&#x27;s quite quiet at times and unassuming, but he&#x27;s got real steel. It&#x27;s a big role for some, and it&#x27;s about being comfortable in your environment.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Sometimes it takes time, sometimes not, but he has that calmness and composure. It helps those in front of him an awful lot.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>At the start of the season, United&#x27;s stated aim was to get back into Europe.<\/p>\n<p>Even internally, it was felt reaching the Europa League was the most realistic target, and financial estimates were created around that.<\/p>\n<p>However, in the wake of Amorim&#x27;s exit, director of football Jason Wilcox spoke to the players about reaching the Champions League.<\/p>\n<p>The difference in status and finance is huge.<\/p>\n<p>United have now gone 10 consecutive Premier League games without defeat for the first time since a run of 14 between January and May 2021 under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.<\/p>\n<p>From their current position, with no European distractions, which is something Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool all have, it would be a major disappointment for them if United were not to seal a return to European football&#x27;s top table.<\/p>\n<p>&quot;Manchester United are now virtually guarantees for one of the Champions League places,&quot; said Carragher. &quot;I can&#x27;t see them not making it.&quot;<\/p>\n<h2>Related topics<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-united\">Manchester United<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\">Football<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>More on this story<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"\/sport\/football\/teams\/manchester-united\">\n<p>Latest Manchester United news, analysis and fan views<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"\/send\/u211221009\">\n<p>Ask about Man Utd &#8211; what do you want to know?<\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sesko and Lammens allow Man Utd to dream of Champions LeagueTo play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedMedia caption, Super-sub Sesko earns Man Utd wi&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp1.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}