During his days with Chelsea, Juan Mata endured back-to-back defeats in the UEFA Super Cup, first to Atletico Madrid in 2012 and then to Bayern Munich the following season. Now with Manchester United, the Spaniard believes the third time could be the charm as the Red Devils are set to take on Real Madrid on Tuesday in Skopje, Macedonia.
“We (head into) the Super Cup in brilliant condition,” Mata told MUTV, the video channel on the club’s official website.
“I’ve been lucky to play two (Super Cup finals) and I’ve been unlucky to lose two. We will try again on Tuesday, but it will be hard against Real Madrid.”
Following Madrid’s final preseason tune-up, a win over the MLS All-Stars on penalty kicks in Chicago, Los Meringues manager Zinedine Zidane told the press what he believes his side needs to work on heading into the clash with United. Zidane also answered a question about whether or not Cristiano Ronaldo will feature in the Super Cup.
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.
Juan Mata scored the game winning goal in a 2-1 exhibition triumph over Sampdoria in Dublin’s Aviva Stadium Wednesday night, thus further verifying his current level of full match fitness. Mata had missed some time this summer due to an injury he suffered in a pre-season win over Real Salt Lake.
“I had a little problem but I’m happy to be back and to get a run out ahead of next week,” Mata said.
In other Juan Mata news, and this is an item for the greater good, the Spanish playmaker announced that he will be donating 1% of his salary to charity this upcoming season. What a wonderful example of benevolence this is, hopefully other footballers follow suit.
An amazing project starts today. Please take a moment to check it out. ??? #CommonGoal https://t.co/UJbedfXnpW
— Juan Mata García (@juanmata8) August 4, 2017
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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