U23S: MCTOMINAY HELPS REDS PASS FRENCH TEST
Manchester United's Under-23s garnered more invaluable experience against European opposition on Friday night, following up the recent 0-0 draw with Dutch club PSV Eindhoven by overcoming crack French side Paris Saint-Germain 3-0.
This excellent victory at Leigh Sports Village means Ricky Sbragia's team have booked a place in the knockout stage of the Premier League International Cup, and for the 1,019 fans who were there, it whets the appetite for what will be the clubs' first-ever competitive meeting at senior level. PSG will visit Old Trafford in the UEFA Champions League of course, in just over a fortnight's time, on 12 February.
There was something of a surprise for United’s supporters when they received the teamsheet ahead of the game. The Reds’ line-up was comprised of the usual Under-23 regulars but there was one stand-out inclusion - Scott McTominay. Most of the fans would have expected the Scotland international to have been 200 miles away in North London, preparing with the first-team squad for the Emirates FA Cup fourth-round tie that kicked-off 55 minutes later than this game.
Academy graduate McTominay, who this month signed a new contract to keep him at the club until at least 2023, was maade captain for the night and he certainly took his new responsibility extremely seriously for inside the opening two minutes he had raced through the Parisians’ defence to give his side a morale-boosting start.
With United required to win the game by at least a three-goal margin to reach the next round, Scott's early strike was just what the doctor ordered!
PSG's prospects of taking something from their visit to Manchester became increasingly stretched after Tahith Chong had raised the scoreline to 3-0 with two goals inside the next quarter-of-an-hour, with both finishes capping surging runs by the recent first-team debutant.
The visitors, whose squad was depleted to the point they could only name three subs, steadied themselves to some degree following that unnerving triple blast from United. But while the French side began to see more of the ball, the end product rarely succeeded in troubling Reds goalkeeper Alex Fojtíček.
The second half commenced at a slightly less sensational pace than the first but PSG were lively enough to have Abdallah Yaisien firing narrowly wide and Emmanuel Attah forcing Fojtíček into a spectacular save at full stretch.
United's Slovenian shot-stopper had to be alert again in the 75th minute, to push away Virgiliu Postolachi's point-blank effort.
As the game approached its final stages, United needed to tread carefully because the improved performance from the French side suggested that they were certainly capable of finding the net and consequently putting Sbragia’s side out of the competition.
Instead, the Reds held firm, kept a clean sheet and finished the night on top of the group, ahead of Derby County on goal difference thanks to those three strikes in seventeen first-half minutes.
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