Real Madrid lose their first pre-season match 2 - 1 to Manchester United (Alexis, Herrera; Benzema). Here is our quick reaction. Still to come: Player ratings and tactical review. We had a lot of fun on Twitter tonight, humouring the much anticipated hot takes and overreactions from fans regardless of what the outcome of this match was. All in all, I missed doing this, and I had an unnecessary amount of notes from this pre-season friendly. Ah, I missed Real Madrid games — even in this capacity. Bullet points from Kiyan’s notepad Pre-season or not, I genuinely look forward to these games, if only to enjoy seeing the younger players put on the senior team shirt. Tonight’s starting line-up consisted of Marcos Llorente, Dani Ceballos, Vinicius Jr (his teammates called him ‘Vinny’ on the pitch, by the way, which makes it easier for us), Javi Sanchez, and Fede Valverde. That’s fun. These are players we’ve been tracking for a couple years, and are excited to see their progress. It was fun to see Ceballos unchained tonight. This was the Dani we saw with Betis and the U-21 team — the midfield cog who wants the ball constantly. He has the Isco gene — funnelling the team’s offensive flow, and he even has the same tendency to run across the pitch to show as a short outlet (a superfluous thing, to be sure). He glides with the ball and looks vertical. Before Real Madrid started growing into the match and controlling the tempo a little bit with some nice passing sequences, Ceballos was the main binding agent into the final third. He had good moments hounding in midfield and closing passing lanes; though he did have a giveaway in the 25th minute which led to a United counter attack. Odriozola speedy overloads are going to be fun this season. His crosses in tight spaces are accurate and well-weighted. Marcos Llorente as a single pivot! It’s the little things! Llorente had a lot of touches on the ball today, and though we don’t have pre-season stats, he was probably the most ball-dominant player after Ceballos. Good interceptions and touches. A couple times in the second half he had a vertical pass available to Martin Odegaard, but opted to recycle possession sideways. He needs to be more daring in these situations. Gareth Bale played one half. Nothing much to note either way. His touches were sharp, and tonight he mostly controlled the ball and either switched it cross-field, or cut-in for either a shot or through-ball. Swapped flanks with Vinny towards the end of the first half. Out there but not that impressive (which doesn’t mean much): Vallejo, Valverde, Casilla. Vallejo was beat to a cross (a noted weakness for him) by Alexis for United’s first goal, and he had a heavy back-pass to Kiko causing a precarious situation later in the first half. Casilla was uncomfortable on the ball, and Fede looked a bit rusty coming back from his injury, which is always understandable. The Uruguayan was slow to react to Herrara’s goal, and had some misplaced passes without pressure around him. Valverde did look much sharper in the second half, which is a good sign. Also underwhelming: Javi Sanchez, who received a deserved call up from Castilla after anchoring the defensive line last season at Valdebebas. He didn’t look in-sync with the rest of the offside line, and had trouble staying with cutting runs inside the box. Vinicius Jr debut was good! He started off quiet, but even then, he did well defensively to close down the passing lane to Darmian and track his runs. He also grew into the match offensively with some nice dribbling sequences. Vinicius JR en su debut vs Manchester United pic.twitter.com/81dlHPzDdL — Ligas Europeas (@Ligas_Europas) August 1, 2018 Some great flair there, even if the cross needed to be (much) better. He looked more comfortable as the game went on. This wasn’t a great game from Theo (after failing to keep up with Darmian on the first goal conceded, he hung his head a little, and start misplacing passes), but this cross to Benzema was just perfect: Karim Benzema Goal • Man United v Real Madrid (2x[1]) pic.twitter.com/sCGkEvOJPV — Football Goals (@_eurogoals) August 1, 2018<doc-sep>Manchester United finished off a demanding and occasionally fractious tour of the USA with a confidence boosting win over European Champions Real Madrid. It may only have been a friendly and Real’s players are only just starting to pick up the pace in their pre-season schedule but given everything that has soured this trip for manager Jose Mourinho, this was a nice way to bring it to a close. United’s first goal was good, Ander Herrera sending Matteo Darmian away down the right, whose cutback was perfect for Alexis Sanchez to score his second goal of United’s pre-season campaign. But their second was sublime, a brilliant team move that offered a tantalising glimpse of what they might be capable of next season. Darmian curled a delicious pass in behind the Madrid defence for Juan Mata to run on to. He had Sanchez for company and found him with an equally well-placed pass. It initially looked as though it was a little high for the Chilean to reach, but he not only got his head to, he also controlled the direction it went, falling perfectly into the path of Herrera to let it bounce before smashing it beyond the goalkeeper<doc-sep>Asensio and Lucas Vazquez to De Gea: Karius, Karius! Manchester United vs Real Madrid In the Hard Rock Stadium tunnel David de Gea came up against a number of his Spain teammates when Manchester United took on Real Madrid in the International Champions Cup, including Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez. The two Real Madrid players greeted the goalkeeper in the tunnel of the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami and were caught joking with him on camera. "Karius, Karius!" they were seen shouting, in footage from Gol's 'El Golazo' programme. Like the Liverpool goalkeeper Loris Karius did in the Champions League final, De Gea made a high-profile mistake this summer, letting in a Cristiano Ronaldo goal during a group stage match at the World Cup.<doc-sep>REAL Madrid have priced Luka Modric well out of the market (and out of this planet), while Manchester United have agreed to personal terms with Yerry Mina. That and more in this edition of Rumour Mill. BOSNICH: THE SYNDROME MOOY AND RYAN MUST AVOID TRANSFERS: HIGUAIN LEAVES JUVE IN HUGE SWAP DEAL BILLION DOLLAR BABY Real Madrid have slapped a $1.1 billion price tag on Luka Modric to fend off interest from Inter Milan. Luka Modric took home the Golden Ball at Russia 2018. Source: Getty Images The former Tottenham midfielder, 32, was named the best player at the World Cup after leading Croatia to the final. Modric is under contract at the Bernebeu Stadium until June 2020, but reports in Italy claimed he wanted to join his Croatia teammates Ivan Perisic and Marcelo Brozovic. Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has dismissed any real chance of Modric’s departure by declaring that any buyer must pay his $1 billion release clause. The Champions League winners have already sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus this summer. — The Mirror MOURINHO IN FOR MINA Manchester United have agreed to personal terms with Barcelona defender Yerry Mina, with the Colombia international waiting on the two clubs to agree a deal. Yerry Mina has reportedly agreed to personal terms with Manchester United. Source: AFP The central defender has emerged as Jose Mourinho’s top defensive target after impressing in the World Cup, where he headed three goals from corners — one of them against England in the round of 16. Mina admitted life has been tough at Barcelona after a frustrating six months at the Nou Camp when he said: “When I saw that I wasn’t even on the bench, that I wasn’t even being considered, I started to train alone at home.” — BBC SPURS TRIO OPEN TO OFFERS Tottenham will consider any potential offers for Toby Alderweireld, Danny Rose and Mousa Dembele in this window. Toby Alderweireld is one of three Spurs players set to leave. Source: Supplied Alderweireld and Dembele see their contracts expire next summer, though the former has a clause to extend it until 2020, which would also trigger a $44m release clause. Belgium centre-back Alderweireld was of interest to Manchester United, according to Sky sources. But United have focused their attention on Yerry Mina of Barcelona, and there have been no formal offers for Alderweireld at this stage. — Sky Sports<doc-sep>
Vinicius Jr is surely going to be one of the stars of the future, with his move to Real Madrid showing just what the Spanish giants see in the winger. The Brazilian starlet played against Man United in Los Blancos’ first match of pre-season, and he did something that caught a lot of fans’ eyes for all the wrong reasons. MORE: Julen Lopetegui green lights Real Madrid spending €100M+ to bolster key area, Serie A superstar being eyed up for transfer During the match, 18-year-old produced a dive that even a young Didier Drogba would’ve been proud of, and it certainly hasn’t impressed these few fans. It’s not a nice thing to see a player dive in a match in any circumstance, especially when they aren’t even anywhere near the penalty area like Vinicius was! Here’s a clip of the Brazilian wonder-kid’s theatrical acts against the Red Devils on Wednesday morning and the reaction to it. We’re sure a lot of Real fans will be wanting Vinicius to remove this element from his game, despite it winning their side a free-kick! Despite the worst dive I've ever witnessed & the potential to be a complete sh*thouse of a player, Vinicius Jr. looks very much the superstar for Real Madrid. Step overs galore in the No. 28 (Ronaldo's 1st number for Sporting) and the perfect replacement for CR7. Great name too. — 'Drawty' (@DrawtyDevil) August 1, 2018 Just seen a gif of the Vinicius Jr dive. Take a bow son, drinks on me sir, round of applause. Dive was so entertaining I had to play Drake's Best I Ever Had. — Henri Hilario (@HilarioHenri) August 1, 2018 Vinicius Jr with the worst dive of all time… — United Tweets (@utd_tweet) August 1, 2018 Dive of the year goes to Real Madrid’s new boy Vinicius Jr ? pic.twitter.com/UTEWZYrUPQ — FanLeague (@fanleague) August 1, 2018 Vinicius Jr horrible diving vs Man Utd Great skill at the age of 18 #MUFC #MUFCTOUR pic.twitter.com/elJznb44iu — Prashanth Nair (@reddevil07nair) August 1, 2018 Vinicius diving already though. Needs to cut that out immediately or the Neymar comparisons that you wouldn’t want are gonna come in. — Chris (@TheMessiahWay) August 1, 2018