ANDRE ONANA’S FIRST major act as Manchester United’s new number one was…picking the ball out the back of the net.
The match was just six minutes old when England ace Jude Bellingham was put through by Antonio Rudiger and executed a delightful chip over the Red Devils goalkeeper.
What a moment for the 20-year-old who United themselves were trying to get before he headed to Borussia Dortmund in 2020.
Now at Real Madrid he looks totally comfortable in one of the greatest teams on the planet and was rightly chased and congratulated by his teammates for his finish.
Onana meanwhile was looking to the assistant referee for a flag for offside and his teammates for an explanation as to what had just happened.
Neither was forthcoming.
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He would go on to recover the ball from the back of the net again on 88 minutes as Real Madrid doubled their lead through on loan Joselu who executed a stunning overhead kick from Lucas Vazquez cross.
Onana was slow to react to that on a disappointing night for United just 24 hours after their second team had been beaten 3-1 by Wrexham.
The £47million buy from Inter Milan did at least show one of the main reasons why Erik ten Hag has bought him.
Constantly off his line and in the centre of his own half he looked comfortable in the sweeper-keeper role that David De Gea could not adapt to
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His distribution skills are what the boss wanted and he looks toally comfortable on the ball where David De Gea was nervous.
United once again lacked quality up front.
They tried to get back on level terms in the first half with Alejandro Garnacho firing over and Mason Mount finding the goalkeeper from close range.
Marcus Rashford too pulled an angled shot wide.
But it was Real that looked much the better with Vinicius Jr a stand out performer with his scything runs through the middle of the park.
Bellingham too looked a level above what Manchester United had to offer.
The only way they could stop him seemed to be to foul him as Lisandro Martinez did on a number of occasions causing him to get a booking and provoking a short melee.
Manchester United did well to get back into the Champions League by finishing third last season.
But if this was anything to go by they are still a long way off challenging some of the best that the competition has to offer.
With nine players changed on the hour, it is difficult to make major judgements.
Except the fact that they continue to lack firepower.
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The hope is they will have Atalanta’s Rasmus Hojlund by the start of the season.
They need him, they need a striker, any striker.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
