Our first competitive game of the season ends with a defeat. An unconvincing performance for most of the game led to Real Madrid lifting the Super Cup trophy. This was not the start we wanted to make to the new season.
The first half was started poorly by Manchester United. Real Madrid were dominating possession and United were finding it hard to get out of their half. Things weren’t looking great for United and Real went close to breaking the deadlock early when Casemiro’s header hit the crossbar. Less than ten minutes later, Casemiro scored from Carvajal’s delivery in behind the United defence. There was however a question of offside for the goal. United slowly started settling into the game towards the end of the first half.
Unfortunately, the second half didn’t start as well as we’d hoped. Madrid were again attacking constantly and doubled their lead when Isco played a one-two with Bale before finding the bottom corner of the net. Less than a minute later, Pogba’s header was saved by Navas and the rebound was shot over from a Lukaku with a poor effort towards an open goal. The next chance of the game came to Gareth Bale who rattled the crossbar from close range. Immediately after, Matic’s shot was parried by Navas and Lukaku’s rebound (this time) ended with the ball in the back of the net. The rest of the game followed the pattern of United on the attack and trying to break down the Madrid defence but failing to do so.
The final score ended 2-1 to Real Madrid and if I’m being honest, they deserved to win as they were levels ahead of us. It’s fair to say we’re still quite far away from where we hoped to be at this stage. We did show glimpses of class but we allowed ourselves to be dominated for most of the game.
Overall, this was a poor performance. If we play like we did today against West Ham on Sunday, we’re sure to start the Premier League campaign with a loss. However, we know for a fact that we can play good football and we’ve got the quality needed to play at the highest level. Let’s hope that we see the right United on Sunday!
