(Manchester United News)
Manchester United have a great chance of lifting the Nike Academy Cup following an impressive 3-0 win over AS Monaco at St George’s Park, Burton-on-Trent.
The four-team tournament, which also includes German club Hertha Berlin and Nike Academy, is being played over two days at the Football Association's training headquarters in the Staffordshire countryside.
Four players with first-team experience - Tyler Blackett, Tom Thorpe, Andreas Pereira and Adnan Januzaj - were included in Warren Joyce's 18-man squad. United, wearing their traditional red shirts and white shorts, started brightly and were almost immediately putting the Monaco goal under threat.
The Reds went close as early as the sixth minute when Matthew Willock fired across goal following impressive work from Ashley Fletcher. And three minutes later United were again close to opening the scoring when Januzaj hit a free-kick inches wide of the goal.
United were doing all the attacking at that point and it came as no surprise when in the very next minute the Reds went ahead. Januzaj supplied the assist with a lovely through ball and Andreas Pereira made no mistake with a shot from close range. It was nothing more than United deserved for the early domination, but it wasn’t long before Monaco started to up their game.
Reds goalkeeper Kieran O’Hara, who had been little more than a spectator during the opening exchanges, was soon called into action as the club from the millionaires’ playground in southern France went looking for the equaliser. Jonathan Martinez Y Morales was the first to test O'Hara with an effort that the shot-stopper did well to keep out and just a few minutes later striker Juan Arcas Marin forced the Reds' no.1 into making a spectacular one-handed block.
The skies had been dull, with the real threat of rain, when the game began but as half-time arrived fluffy clouds were decorating the blue sky and the sun had put in an appearance. United continued to shine on the pitch and doubled the lead in the 67th minute when Pereira’s neat approach play was expertly finished off by Joe Rothwell who went around Monaco goalkeeper Florian Andreani before placing the ball in the net.
Monaco almost pulled one back direct from the restart when Arcas Marin made an audacious attempt to find the net over O’Hara’s head. Fortunately, United’s keeper was alert to the ploy and he moved quickly to tip the ball over the bar.
Both teams utilised numerous substitutes during the second half but it did little to interrupt the flow of what had been a largely entertaining game. Rothwell grabbed his second goal of the contest four minutes from time, when he tapped home after keeper Andreani had half-saved Januzaj’s free-kick.
The final score might have been 3-0 to United but at the end of the game the teams each took three penalties, a procedure designed to help decide the tournament’s winner in the event of a tie. That brief competition ended 2-2 with Rothwell and Pereira scoring for United and Monaco pair Karim Imira and Aurelien Duhamel also finding the net.
The Reds' second match in the Nike Academy Cup at St George's Park is on Sunday, against Hertha Berlin (kick-off 10:00 BST).
United: O’Hara, El Fitouri (Tuanzebe 46), Thorpe, Blackett, Evans C. (Kellett 46); Willock (Rashford 72), Grimshaw (Fosu-Mensah 46), Goss (Weir 80), Pereira A; Januzaj, Fletcher (Rothwell 46). Sub not used: Henderson.
