Manchester United 2-1 Real Madrid
It was an up-and-down—and generally frustrating—US tour for Jose Mourinho, but at least he’s going back to Manchester with a win and some positives.
Manchester United were coming off an embarrassing 1-4 defeat against Premier League rivals Liverpool at Michigan Stadium, leading Mourinho to slam his side. The Portuguese boss criticised his players after the loss and claimed they are not worth watching, particularly with more than half of his starters missing the action.
Despite the downcast mood in the United camp, however, the Red Devils and the youngsters responded to their manager’s criticism by beating Julen Lopetegui’s Real Madrid to finish ICC 2018 on a high note.
Highlights of the game
Alexis Sanchez, as it has been throughout this pre-season, was the star for Manchester United as he scored one and assisted on the other to give the Red Devils a two-goal lead within 30 minutes.
The Chilean star missed their first friendly in the United States against Club America after encountering problems with his visa. He returned in their goalless friendly against the San Jose Earthquakes and has consistently impressed since then, only failing to find the back of the net against Liverpool.
Real Madrid got one back before the first half ends, with Karim Benzema scoring in stoppage time to bring Los Blancos within one. However, that was all Lopetegui’s side could muster after the second half featured little action.
It didn’t take long for the Red Devils to break the deadlock as Sanchez was on his usual fiery form again, catching the Real Madrid defence sleeping to fire home the opener on 18 minutes. Ander Herrera set up Matteo Darmian, who then made a sweeping move before feeding Sanchez with a low cross.
The 29-year-old Sanchez eventually converted with a clinical first-time finish for his second goal of the tournament.
Less than 10 minutes later, Manchester United found the back of the net again, obviously taking advantage of Real Madrid’s lack of action in recent months. This game was Real’s first game in more than two months and first under former Spain boss Lopetegui, and that was clear when Herrera converted past a helpless Kiko Casilla.
Juan Mata sparked the offence and played the ball on the right before crossing to Sanchez. The Chilean then nodded to Herrera on a wide-open space, giving the Spain international enough room to fire a powerful close-range strike.
A game of spurts and lulls followed, with Real Madrid enjoying a lion share of possession but failing to create clear-cut chances. Gareth Bale and Marcos Llorente had opportunities to put Los Blancos on the scoresheet, but it wasn’t until the stoppage time that they found the back of the net.
In a brilliant build-up, Theo Hernandez sent a nice cross inside the 6-yard box and Benzema gladly received it, sticking out his right foot to redirect the ball over United keeper David De Gea who thought he had a good grasp of where the ball was going.
It was a fairly uneventful second half, though Real Madrid did have solid chances to equalise and turn around the ICC 2018 odds.
Borja Mayoral had a chance six minutes after the restart, but his effort was denied by De Gea. Martin Odegaard then blasted his chance from close range while Sergio Lopez saw his free-kick saved by the tireless United goalie.
Raul de Tomas could have scored the leveller on 82 minutes, but he spurned the glorious opportunity and left Lopetegui looking for his first win.
In hindsight, the appearance of Marco Asensio, Isco and Toni Kroos on 77 minutes may have been a little too late as the three failed to make a substantial impact.
Key statistics
Real Madrid showed their rustiness in the game, as proven by their three shots on target despite having a total of 15 shots. In contrast, Manchester United had three shots on target and converted two for the win.
Interestingly, Real Madrid were pretty wasteful throughout the game as well. They had 71 percent possession and recorded 92 percent accuracy with their passes, not to mention the seven corners they had compared to Manchester United’s one.
Benzema and Bale—the only players of the Champions League winning squad to start in the contest—posed plenty of problems to United, but they were made to pay for their lack of clinical finishing. In fact, the only notable chance that Bale had was a curling effort in the first half.
What’s next?
It was just Real Madrid’s first game in the tournament, and SBOBET has them bouncing back from this defeat.
They next face Juventus in what should be one of the key ICC 2018 highlights, despite new Bianconeri Cristiano Ronaldo not featuring in the event.
Meanwhile, Manchester United have a club friendly scheduled against German champions Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena.
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