Manchester United aims to get their pre-season back on track as they face Real Madrid in their final International Champions Cup match on August 1, 2018 at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida in the United States.
After three straight draws in the United States, Manchester United was the recipient of a 4-1 thrashing from archrivals Liverpool at the Michigan Stadium on Saturday. Following the loss, Manchester United team manager Jose Mourinho told reporters that if he were a fan, we wouldn’t have paid money to watch his own team. Mourinho’s frustrations are all about his heavily weakened club which has suffered injuries, player absences and lack of transfer activity this summer.
Manchester United will be playing without Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Marcus Rashford, Ashley Young, Marouane Fellaini, Jesse Lingard, Marcos Rojo and Victor Lindelof who are still enjoying their post-World Cup breaks. Adding to Mourinho’s woes are the fact that Diogo Dalot will only be available beginning September and Nemanja Matic won’t be ready to play at the start of the season after undergoing surgery for an injury he suffered at the recent World Cup.
Brazilian midfielder Fred, whom Manchester signed to a five year £52m deal last month, made his debut off the bench during Manchester United’s loss to Liverpool. The former Shakhtar Donetsk standout will be looking to get a start against Real Madrid. David de Gea might also make his first appearance for Manchester United in this pre-season tournament after re-joining his teammates recently after his World Cup holidays.
Mourinho also suggested that forward Anthony Martial has gone AWOL after leaving the club’s preseason activities to attend to the birth of second child. Martial was given permission to leave last week but has remained in France as Manchester United continue their pre-season in the United States.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid are starting their preseason late. The UEFA Champions League winners will be without World Cup champion Raphael Varane and finalists Luca Modric and Mateo Kovacic. But the biggest news for Real Madrid is the departure of superstar forward Cristiano Ronaldo who recently left for Juventus.
Not only will the Los Blancos be missing Ronaldo but also Zinedine Zidane, who stepped down as coach after leading Real Madrid to a third UEFA Champions League title. New coach Julen Lopetegui, who took over a couple of week before the start of the 2018 FIFA World Cup is hoping that his new coaching assignment will start on a high note.
The expectation is that Lopetegui will use the International Champions Cup to build their form for the European Super Cup next month where they will face Atletico Madrid for the first title of the season. Lopetegui has taken steps as his predecessor would to ensure that his team would be ready for August 15 such as conducting training in Madrid instead of Montreal and resting key players who played in the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
Here are the line-ups for both squads in the tournament:
David de Gea, Sergio Romero, Joel Pereira, Lee Grant
Antonio Valencia, Matteo Darmian, Timothy Fosu-Mensah, RoShaun Williams, Chris Smalling, Eric Bailly, Axel Tuanzebe, Demetri Mitchell, Luke Shaw, Diogo Dalot (injured)
Nemanja Matic (injured), Fred, Ander Herrera, Andreas Pereira, Scott McTominay, Ethan Hamilton, James Garner
Anthony Martial, Juan Mata, Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes, Mason Greenwood, Joshua Bohui
Keylor Navas, Kiko Casilla, Luca Zidane, Andriy Lunin
Dani Carvajal, Jesus Vallejo, Sergio Ramos, Nacho, Theo Hernandez, Alvaro Odriozola, Sergio Reguilón, Luismi Quezada, Sergio López, Javi Sánchez, De la Fuente, León.
Toni Kroos, Marcos Llorente, Marcos Asensio, Isco, Dani Ceballos, Martin Odegaard, Federico Valverde, Jaime Seoane, Óscar, Francisco Feuillassier.
Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Lucas Vázquez, Borja Mayoral, Raul De Tomás, Vinicius.
Real Madrid leads Manchester United in these contests, with five wins in their previous eleven meetings. Manchester has only won twice with the remaining four games ending in a draw. Manchester United has lost their last two fixtures against Real Madrid and the last time Manchester United beat the Spanish side was in 2003.
It’s difficult to pick a winner in these friendlies especially since these teams aren’t playing at full strength in this matchup. Like Manchester United, Real Madrid is missing its World Cup players as well as Cristiano Ronaldo. They are also playing for a brand new coach. But if Mourinho is correct that Manchester United is playing at just 30% strength, then this could be another defeat for the English side. We’re picking Real Madrid to beat Manchester United in this match.
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