Louis Van Gaal’s fourth game in charge against Real Madrid, in front of a massive 109,000 people ended in a 3-1 victory. With Ashley Young(2) and Javier Hernandez scoring for United, and Gareth Bale scoring for Madrid. United started in the now usual, 3-5-2 formation, with Darren Fletcher captaining the side, as they appear to be settling in very well to Van Gaal’s tactics.
There was some excellent one touch football from United, and everyone appears to be playing superb under the new boss as the team performed well against a strong Madrid side and dominated for the majority.
The match started very well, and it set the tone for the first half and the majority of the game. We were the better side throughout, as Madrid failed to make a big impact on the game. Fletcher was closest to opening the scoring after 14 minutes, but shot narrowly wide. Then on 21 minutes, Ashley Young slotted home to make it 1-0 to the reds, after some excellent play between the whole team.
Madrid got an undeserved goal on 26 minutes, after Gareth Bale was brought down by Michael Keane as he slipped. Gareth Bale himself finished the penalty to make it 1-1. United were back on top straight away and took a deserved lead on 37 minutes as Ashley Young’s cross come shot, missed everyone and bent in far post. The only negative from the half was that Danny Welbeck limped off near the end of the half, which brought on Zaha for his second appearance of the tour.
The second half started with a few changes, Luke Shaw was one of those, as he works towards full fitness. United again started on top, and kept Madrid at bay. It took Madrid until the 55th minute, to finally get into the game, and looked on top for the next 20 minutes or so. They had multiple chances to equalise but a poor end product prevented them. Ronaldo also made a brief appearance coming on in the 75th minute, but failed to make an impact against his old club.
United nearly made it 3-1 in the 76th minute, as Hernandez poked inches wide from a Lingard cross. But United, and Hernandez, did make it 3-1 on 80 minutes as the super-sub headed home from an inch-perfect Shinji Kagawa through ball.
The game ended 3-1 to United, and Louis van Gaal’s men dominated for the majority of the game. It’s fair to say Madrid didn’t quite look the part, as they slumped to a 3rd defeat of their Champions Cup campaign. But for United, its 3 wins from 3 in the cup, and 4 wins from 4 in pre-season. This win has set us up with a Liverpool “friendly” in the Champions Cup final on Monday.
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