Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has avoided having to disrupt his summer plans after Manchester City secured an unprecedented domestic treble.
United faced having to cut their summer tour to Australia and the Far East short if Watford won the FA Cup.
But a 6-0 win for for City means United will go straight into the group stages of the Europa League, rather than play in a qualifying round.
If Watford had won against United’s arch rivals City, they would have automatically qualified for the group stages instead.
It left Solskjaer relying on a favour from Pep Guardiola and becoming an unlikely City fan for the day.
United face Tottenham in Shanghai on July 25, which is the same day as they would have been due to play a Europa League qualifier.
Solskjaer faces a pivotal summer as he enters his first transfer window as United manager.
He hopes to make as many as five new additions – targeting reinforcements in every department of his squad.
He is closing in on Swansea winger Daniel James and has told executive vice chairman Ed Woodward he wants all of his signings in place for July 1 to give him the best chance of gelling his side.
United’s preparations include games in Perth, Singapore, Shanghai and Cardiff.
But those plans would have been ripped up if Solskjaer suddenly had to navigate Europa League qualifiers.
