MANCHESTER: Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho challenged Wayne Rooney to lead the club to Europa League glory after the England captain broke United's European scoring record against Feyenoord.
Rooney, 31, scored his 39th European goal as United crushed Feyenoord 4-0 on Thursday, thereby closing to within just one goal of Bobby Charlton's all-time club scoring record of 249 goals.
United need just a draw away to Ukrainians Zorya Luhansk in their final Group A game to progress and Mourinho says Rooney can be the inspiration behind the club's first success in the competition.
"It's an amazing achievement, obviously," Mourinho told reporters when asked to sum up Rooney's feat in surpassing Ruud van Nistelrooy as United's outright leading scorer in UEFA competitions.
"It will be even better if he can help to bring to the club the only competition that the club never won in its history, which is the Europa League.
"It's not the biggest competition, obviously, but it's a competition that Man United's history doesn't have. So let's try, let's push.
"I know that it's difficult. I know there are lots of matches in the knockout (phase).
"But let's try to qualify and if we qualify in Ukraine, then more matches to come and hopefully more goals for Rooney to score."
Rooney's performance followed a week of negative headlines after he supposedly 'gatecrashed' a late-night wedding party while on England duty.
Despite his milestone, the England captain missed out on the man-of-the-match award to his team-mate Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who marked his first start since September 10 with a fine display.
Mourinho said the Armenian playmaker had been left out of last weekend's 1-1 draw with Arsenal because he was not ready for the "pressure" of such a high-profile fixture.
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