It’s just three days until kickoff of the UEFA Super Cup in Skopje, Macedonia where Manchester United and Real Madrid will square off. The preseason friendlies are now over and thus real football is here. The hotels in the Macedonian capital certainly seem keen to exploit fans’ longing for meaning football to return after the offseason.
That’s just one storyline though in a match overflowing with them. It’s what one would expect when you get those two giant, wealthy clubs with huge international followings comprised of extremely zealous supporters.
Go to this link for the Super Cup Match Preview.
We have your standard issue Cristiano Ronaldo returning to Man United transfer rumors narrative; that re-emerged today. That’s probably a big nothing burger, but the real question is will Ronaldo play in this one, and if so, how much? Zinedine Zidane said on Tuesday that CR7 would return to his team on Aug 5.
Here’s a link to what he said the next night, when asked if Ronaldo would feature for Real Madrid in the Super Cup. It’s likely both Zidane and Ronaldo will be more focused on saving it up for an El Clasico just five days after this clash.
With United kicking off league play five days after the Super Cup, expect United manager Jose Mourinho to play a lot of second-teamers in this one too.
Thus, without further ado, let’s get to the Man United Starting XI prediction for the Super Cup vs Real Madrid.
Romelu Lukaku
Marcus Rashford Paul Pogba Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Ander Herrera Nemanja Matic
Matteo Darmian Daley Blind Chris Smalling Antonio Valencia
David de Gea
Eric Bailly and Phil Jones are suspended for this one, and thus unavailable for selection. Likewise for Ashley Young, Marcos Rojo and Luke Shaw, all of whom have long term injuries.
Obviously there’s a first team case to be made for any of the following: Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard, Victor Lindelof and Anthony Martial.
Sky Bet gives Real 5/6 odds of winning, while Manchester United are 3/1 and a draw are 5/2. United won six of their seven preseason friendlies, while Real won just one of four. Of course, it is just preseason, so don’t read too much into that. United beat Real on penalty kicks in a friendly in Santa Clara, California just 16 days ago.
Prediction: Real Madrid 1, Manchester United 0
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV.
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