Real Madrid lost against Manchester United in their first friendly game of the International Champions Cup at Levi’s Stadium of California, in a very equalize match that finished in the penalty shootout. Zidane decided to play with his usual line-up in the first half while in the second one, he introduced a team full of youngsters.
The French manager couldn’t count for this game with the Under 21 Spanish players (Vallejo, Ceballos, Marcos Llorente and Asensio), Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos, giving minutes to the youngsters in the second half, where we can highlight Théo Heranández’s debut with Real Madrid shirt.
Manchester United started the game playing with a lot of intensity, showing that they have already played three games in the preseason. The team managed José Mourinho had some important opportunities in the first 15 minutes, but Keylor Navas prevented the first goal of the Red Red Devils with some good saves.
With the pass of the minutes Real Madrid midfield (Modric, Kroos and Isco), began to have to the ball possession, having the control of game. Gareth Bale played in the left wing (Ronaldo’s position) and we saw him quite fit after his injury, while Benzema showed that his ready to face the season being the only striker of the team.
It looked like Real Madrid was going to be the team who opened the scoreboard, but in the 45th minute, just before going to the dressing room, Anthony Martial did a wonderful play, beating three Real Madrid players and assisting to his teammate, Lingard.
In the second half we could see many changes in both sides. José Mourinho introduced his best players in the line-up highlighting De Gea, Pogba and the recent signing Lukaku, while Zinedine Zidane gave the opportunity to a very young team with seven youngsters and Kovacic and Casemiro as the leaders of the squad. Real Madrid’s youngster showed off their desire to impress Zidane in what are vital minutes for their development within the first team squad, playing in a high level against a team full of stars.
It looked like we would not see another goal until Théo Hernádez showed his speed in a very fast play, where Linderof did a clear penalty. Casemiro took the responsibility to shoot it, being the captain of the team in the second half and he tied the game with a very powerful penalty.
After Casemiro’s goal, Real Madrid and their team of youngsters continued playing very good, causing many problems to United, but they could not take the lead. We can highlight in the second half the good debut of Théo Hernández, and the brilliant performance of Achraf in the right back, being Blind’s nightmare in the last minutes of the game.
The game finished 1-1 and it was the moment of the penalty shootout, where David De Gea saved three penalties giving the victory to the Red Devils (2-1). On the 8th of Augost these two squads will play again in the European Super Cup and it seems that will be more serious.
Now the team mamnged by Zidane must prepare their second friendly game against Manchester City next Thursday (04:35 UK time).
