Manchester United won again against Benfica in the Champions League group A, after Mile Svilar’s own goal and a Daley Blind penalty. It was another good performance for Manchester United at their Old Trafford, continuing fine form in the elite competition. The Reds are now comfortably sitting in top spot, with 12 points from four matches, while CSKA Moscow and Basel each have six.
Simply, Fortress
It was another professional performance from Jose Mourinho’s team. The Portuguese did mix things up a little bit, with Anthony Martial and Scott McTominay both starting. Jesse Lingard was also on the pitch, but all these changes were not felt throughout the match.
Simply, Old Trafford has become a proper fortress. The fans have seen only one goal conceded this season at the Theatre of Dreams, and that was against Burton Albion in a 4-1 beating in League Cup. Two Champions League matches and five in the league and David De Gea is still unbeaten. That will certainly make things easier for Mourinho’s team.
Reward For McTominay
Andreas Pereira had a good pre-season with Manchester United this summer. However, after weighing up on his choices, the Brazilian decided to go to Valencia. He did not necessarily make a mistake, as they are now only behind Barcelona in LaLiga and playing wonderful football. However, Mourinho was not very happy with him not wanting to try and push himself to the starting XI at Man United.
And McTominay stayed at the club, on the outskirts of the squad, playing odd League Cup game. But this time, he got a reward. He made his first Champions League start and he did not disappoint. Hopefully this will be an incentive for him to improve even more. Manchester United fans love seeing academy players succeeding at the club.
Martial The Sub And Martial The Starter
These are two completely different men. Martial has scored five goals this season and made another four assists. However, only one goal and one assist happened when he started the match. That is a little bit weird as that is when the player usually gets most time to make an impact.
Still, Martial tends to do well only against tired, fatigued and less organised defences in late minutes of matches. He needs to take his chances when he is given an opportunity like this one. For now, we will be seeing him start as a sub.
Mile Svilar Will Remember Manchester United
What has this guy done before making his Champions League debut to deserve all this? We will take his mistake from the first outing as it got us two points, but that was not it. After saving Martial’s penalty and becoming the youngest goalkeeper to do that in this competition, he was unlucky once again.
Nemanja Matic made a long-range shot from almost 30 yards out and Svilar tried to save it. However, the ball passed him and hit the post, bouncing back and hitting the goalkeeper’s back and going in the goal. The 18-year old will remember Manchester United, but he can now relax as the matches ahead of him will not feature the Red Devils.
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