Devil’s Diary: Manchester United’s first loss is here! Sancho missing, Martial firing blanks, Malacia a big promise

Manchester United’s penultimate pre-season game was a chance for football fans in Norway, specifically at Ullevål Stadion in Oslo, where the Red Devils took on their opponents from this year’s Champions League semi-final. Once again, however, Atlético Madrid are enjoying the victory.

In the first half, we could see the most chances especially at the beginning of the match, when two promising ones were burned by Anthony Martial, who had scored in 3 of the 4 previous preliminary matches.

Erik ten Hag’s charges tried to make the ball at any cost right from the edge, while being under high pressure from Atlético’s attackers. The players in the red jerseys managed to break out of that pressure, thanks mainly to their outside back Tyrell Malacio, who encouraged his teammates to make some interesting runs behind the defence.

However, considering that the Spanish side were playing, at least in terms of attacking phase, with the “B-team”, it will be very interesting to see how they play against the stronger teams in the Premier League. There is still a lot of work to be done for the Dutch coach.

The indisposition of Jadon Sancho was certainly known, who was replaced by Anthony Elanga on the right wing. In the previous games, the English speedster was very active in combination with others and in the first half it was especially noticeable when United’s play was mainly on the left side, where Malacia and Rashford were trying to come up with something.

Even the start of the second half didn’t produce a goal despite some promising nascent chances. Then, in the 60th minute, Diego Simeone sent most of his key men on the field, at least in terms of midfield and offense.

Shortly thereafter, the game came alive, especially for the Spanish side, who created a great chance in the 68th minute that was wasted by Saúl Ñíguez. Immediately afterwards, Christian Eriksen took the field for the first time in a Manchester United jersey, which was welcomed especially by the fans in the stadium.

Shortly after his arrival, the Danish midfielder sent a beautiful centre into the box, which would have been right for the head of Cristiano Ronaldo, who is very good in such situations. However, Rashford and Elanga only watched the centre in vain as it headed over the goal line.

The match was finally decided by a ground shot to the bar by João Félix. After that, nothing major happened, except that Fred lost his nerve and saw a red card for kicking Alvaro Morata.

Manchester United now face their final test before a sharp league start when they take on Rayo Vallecano on Sunday, where the Portuguese cannonballer, who still has a question mark hanging over him, should already be available.

Source: Manchester United