Juventus decisively beat an essentially listless Manchester United tonight in a match that certainly did not live up to the hype. With Cristiano Ronaldo coming back to face his former team at Old Trafford for just the second time, this was an extremely anticipated Champions League group stage match.
The result however was a drab 1-0 win by Juventus, which saw United mount not much of a challenge. Was Juve just that good? Well, at times it seemed more like United was just that bad, as they didn’t spend much time at all in the final third. Here and some news and notes from this snoozer.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1054834805987307526
Paulo Dybala provided the only scoring of the match, in the 18′, after United’s Chris Smalling had blocked a Ronaldo cross that was aimed at Juan Cuadrado. After the match, Juve manager Max Allegri said that the team’s plan was to attack around United central midfielder Nemanja Matic, a player that the Juventus boss is said to be a big fan of.
“It was important against Manchester United to keep the ball to ground and attack around Nemanja Matic,” Allegri is quoted by Football-Italia.
“We still make too many mistakes on the final ball, as we had so many more chances and half-chances that we didn’t develop properly. A couple of times it was the player with the ball, another couple it was the player who didn’t peel away from his marker to reach the space.”
Here’s video of the goal:
https://twitter.com/brlive/status/1054815664391766017?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1054815664391766017&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fsoccer.nbcsports.com%2F2018%2F10%2F23%2Fallegri-juventus-tried-to-attack-around-nemanja-matic%2F
After the game, Jose Mourinho admitted that he’s concerned about striker Romelu Lukaku, who is now in the longest goalless drought of his United tenure.
“No critics at all, a complete understanding that the player is a fantastic professional that wants to give everything but I have to agree his moment is not sweet,” said Mourinho.
“It is not just with the goals he is not scoring but in his confidence, movement, touch, he is not linking the game well with the team but he’s our striker and a good striker and a striker we believe in.
“Could I play [Marcus] Rashford there? Yes, but then I don’t have a winger because in this moment we are in a difficult situation. [Lukaku] is a hard working guy but one day the goal will arrive and the confidence will be back.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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