Man Utd boss Jose Mourinho has revealed how he masterminded his side's victory over Ajax in the Europa League final.

The Portuguese manager says that he watched eight Ajax games in preparation for the final.

"I watched eight Ajax matches," he said, according to Portuguese paper TribunaExpresso.

"In England, I tend to watch two to three matches because I already know the opponent, but not in Europe. To me, analysing the opponent is key because the way I practice and play is influenced by it.

"We prepare a game better when we're aware of our own weaknesses," he continued.

"Everyone said Ajax played beautiful football and that the beauty of the game matters and blah, blah, blah. I told my players that, for me, beautiful is not giving our opponents what they want.

"I even joked with Smalling - "With your feet, we're for sure not playing out from the back!"

"That's where we won the game. During the initial stage of the build-up we never played from our centre-backs to our midfielders, because they are great at recovering possession pressing high. In our midfield they didn't recover the ball once.

"If the ball isn't there, what are they going to press?"