BURNLEY’S Johann Berg Gudmundsson regrets that his club’s young guns will miss out on mixing it with Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday night.
The high-flying Clarets are licking their lips at testing their top-flight credentials at Manchester United in the Carabao Cup fourth-round clash.
But the biggest name will not be among them, after Ron’s acrimonious parting of the ways with the Red Devils last month.
Gudmundsson, 32, said: “I’ve played against him a few times, but I reckon a few of the young lads will definitely be a bit sad to have him not on the pitch.
“You want to play against the best and a few of the lads just missed him.
“But it does mean it’s less of a problem for us because he can still be extremely dangerous in the box, so yeah, it could be a good thing for us.
“We don’t have to worry about him.”
Burnley may be big underdogs, but Iceland ace Gudmundsson knows what it takes to get a result at Old Trafford.
The Clarets went four years without losing at United, including a 2-0 win in 2020, and wasted no time getting back to winning ways against Middlesbrough on Saturday.
That made it ten wins in the past 12 games for the Championship leaders and boss Vincent Kompany has previous, having headed a derby winner in Man City’s 2012 title triumph.
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Gudmundsson added: “We know United are a massive team — but we also believe in our quality.
“So we want to go there and show people we are the real deal.
“Obviously the main aim is to get back to the Premier League so it will be good to come up against United and show what we’re about.”
