Atletico Madrid vs Manchester United Review
Atletico Madrid defeated a 10-man Manchester United 2-0, earning their first points in the group stage and extending their unbeaten streak against Manchester United to five games. Michael Carrick is facing increasing pressure as Manchester United’s manager, and if his final instructions to his players were to stay solid in the early moments, they failed to do so.
Just 53 seconds into the game, Manchester United’s defense was breached with a single pass that found Alex Baena, who calmly set up Pablo Barrios to score the opening goal despite Ayden Heaven’s best efforts to clear it off the line. After enduring more pressure, Manchester United nearly responded against the flow of the game when Bryan Mbeumo broke free inside the box, but his shot was narrowly deflected wide by Jan Oblak’s studs.
The same two players were dueling again halfway through the first half. After the United striker exchanged passes with Youri Tielemans, he fired a shot from the left, but Oblak saved his near-post attempt. Oblak then made another save from the resulting corner to deny Carlos Baleba, who was making his full debut. Shortly after, Alejandro Grimaldo reminded United of Atletico’s threat by curling a free-kick that hit the post and crossbar. An even bigger escape for United came just before halftime when a Johnny Cardoso goal was disallowed after a pitchside review found a handball by Marcos Llorente in the buildup.
Atletico continued their aggressive play after the break and nearly scored a second goal within 10 minutes. Barrios delivered a perfect ball over the top of United’s defense, and former Manchester City player Julian Alvarez volleyed against the post with Senne Lammens beaten. Almost immediately, a similar chance arose at the other end when Tielemans floated a pass behind Atletico’s defense on a counterattack. With Oblak off his line, Bruno Fernandes’ chipped shot narrowly missed the post for United fans.
Fernandes was increasingly influential in the match and struck a cross-shot that hit the crossbar with 20 minutes remaining. However, United’s chances of mounting a comeback were ended shortly after when Leny Yoro was retrospectively, and somewhat harshly, sent off following a collision with Jonathan David, as he was judged to have denied a clear goal-scoring opportunity. The situation worsened five minutes later when David’s initial shot was saved but fell to Ademola Lookman, who easily scored into an empty net.
Recognizing the game was effectively over, Carrick decided to substitute Fernandes, partly with the upcoming weekend’s match against fierce rivals Leeds in mind, where United will be aiming for their first away league victory of the season. The rest of the evening was relatively straightforward for Atletico, a familiar scenario for them as they have now won 10 of their last 12 Champions League group stage and league matches.
