London: Ayden Heaven believes a return to European football is well within Manchester United´s reach following Monday´s 4-1 win at Wolves.
Victory at Molineux left Ruben Amorim´s men just a point outside of the top four in the Premier League and in the hunt for a place in next season´s Champions League. United recovered from a disappointing draw with lowly West Ham last week thanks to Bruno Fernandes´ double and further goals from Bryan Mbeumo and Mason Mount after Jean-Ricner Bellegarde had cancelled out Fernandes´ opener with bottom-of-the-table Wolves´ first goal in the Premier League since October 26.
United ended the 2024/25 season in 15th place -- their lowest top-flight finish in 51 years -- and missed out on European qualification by losing the Europa League final to English rivals Tottenham.
But a lack of continental football could yet help the fallen giants rebuild under Portuguese manager Amorim, with teenage United defender Heaven saying: “We dropped points in the last game (at home to West Ham) and this was the chance to go and redeem ourselves and get more points. I feel like we did that, especially in the second half.
“We knew it wasn´t good enough that we conceded. He (Amorim) just told us (at half-time) to do what we can do and we did that as you saw.” United´s surprise 1-0 loss to 10-man Everton at Old Trafford is the lone defeat in their last nine games, with a buoyant Heaven insisting after the Wolves match: “I don´t think anyone can stop us when we play like this.”
The 19-year-old, asked about the prospect of European football, added: “Hopefully we can be in Europe next season, which I think we´ll do. “Of course, that´s where Manchester United belong.”
Heaven was speaking after making a second successive start for United after fellow centre-backs Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt were both injured, with Amorim retaining the rising star in his defence following a 1-1 draw against West Ham.
