MADRID, 30 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Atlético de Madrid beat the English Manchester United this Saturday by the minimum (1-0) at the Ullevaal Stadium in Oslo with a goal from Joao Félix in the last minutes of the game, which gave the second victory of the preseason to the colchoneros in the debut of Argentine winger Nahuel Molina.
Diego Pablo Simeone’s team did not shine in attack and barely reached the goal of former mattress player David De Gea. A match without clear chances and with many inaccuracies behind on both sides. However, Reinildo and Oblak, the only rojiblancos to play the 90 minutes, acted as firewalls to save the mistakes of their teammates.
With right back Nahuel Molina making his debut as a starter after signing last Thursday, Atlético suffered the siege of the ‘Red Devils’ in the first few minutes. The Frenchman Anthony Martial, United’s attacking trick in preseason with three goals in four games, came out in tune and alerted the ‘Cholo’ with two heads-up that Jan Oblak and Reinildo stopped.
Those from Manchester were more rounded, with a positive balance in their preparation tests by winning three of the four games with a draw. Thus, the ‘new’ United shone in an attack without Cristiano Ronaldo, whose name sounded to join the rojiblanco team and who will play his first minutes of the season against Rayo Vallecano this Sunday.
Atlético, indecisive in defence, came with a drop count to David de Gea’s area. Precisely, an error by Lindelof was about to cost Erik ten Hag’s men dearly, although the Swede redeemed himself to avoid Kondogbia’s shot from close range.
The friendly put aside the apparent calm that is customary in preseason and raised the tension between two teams that had their pluses and minuses after meeting last season in the round of 16 of the ‘Champions’. The Scotsman McTominay caused a small brawl with the Atlético players, after charging a sore Oblak in the fall.
Without changes after the break, the mattress team furnished their claims in the second half and bothered Manchester when the ball came out. But his efforts to open the scoring did not bear fruit and ‘Cholo’ took out the second unit in the 60th minute to change a large part of the starting eleven.
Joao Félix had his first minutes, after missing the first test against Numancia, and accompanied Álvaro Morata in attack. While Saúl Ñíguez occupied the left lane, that same side that he avoided in the past.
Manchester United lowered the intensity in a calm second half. Ten Hag moved the bench to revitalize the midfield with the entry of Donny van de Beek and Christian Eriksen. It was precisely from the Dane’s boots that United’s best chances came and Harry Maguire wasted his measured cross to the point of the area, in the clearest chance of the match.
With everything to decide in the last ten minutes, a genius from Joao Félix broke the tie to leave De Gea pinned, after the Portuguese cut himself in front and culminated his action by the short post. Thus, the attacker scored the winning goal and earned the focus that he requested to elevate his first staging of the season.
The goal infuriated a deranged United even more, as they deserved more in a friendly without pain or glory for both teams. Even so, the Brazilian Fred rekindled the tension on the pitch with a second yellow when stepping on Morata in the abdominal.
In this way, Atlético consummated a meritorious victory to remain undefeated in preseason, after beating Numancia (4-0) and now the ‘Red Devils’ by the minimum (1-0). Their next rival to beat will be Cádiz on August 4 in the Carranza Trophy.
