Atletico 2-0 Man Utd: Carrick’s woes continue as Atleti dispatch 10-man Red Devils

A UEFA Champions League game shrouded in controversy went the way of Atletico Madrid, who beat 10-man Manchester United 2-0 to post their first points of the league phase and stretch their unbeaten head-to-head record to five matches. 

Match Report

Michael Carrick is under growing pressure in the Manchester United post, and if his final message to his players was to keep it tight in the opening stages, they failed miserably. A mere 53 seconds were on the clock when United were sliced open with one pass in behind which found Alex Baena, and he retained his composure to cut the ball back for Pablo Barrios to sweep home the opener despite the best efforts of Ayden Heaven on the line. 

After weathering yet more pressure afterwards, United almost hit back against the run of play when Bryan Mbeumo wriggled free inside the area and saw his effort diverted just wide of the target by the studs of Jan Oblak.

The same pair were duelling again midway through the first half, when after the United frontman exchanged passes with Youri Tielemans, he arrowed in from the left and saw his near-post effort repelled by Oblak, who made another stop from the resulting corner to deny Carlos Baleba on his full debut. Alejandro Grimaldo reminded United of Atleti’s threat moments later when he curled a free-kick against the angle of post and bar, and an even bigger let-off came on the stroke of half-time when a Johnny Cardoso goal was ruled out following a pitchside review due to a handball by Marcos Llorente in the build-up.

Atletico’s approach was unwavering after the break and almost yielded a second goal within 10 minutes of the restart. Barrios pinged a lovely ball over the top of the United defence and former Manchester City man Julian Alvarez crashed a volley against the post with Senne Lammens beaten. A similar instance presented itself at the other end almost instantly, as Tielemans floated a ball in behind the Atleti defence on the break, and with Oblak out of his goal, Bruno Fernandes’ lofted effort dropped just the wrong side of the post for those of a United persuasion.

Fernandes had a growing influence on the game and whipped a cross-shot against the crossbar 20 minutes from time, but United’s hopes of getting back into the game were dashed moments later when Leny Yoro was retrospectively, and rather harshly, sent off following a coming together with Jonathan David when he was deemed to have denied an obvious goalscoring opportunity. Insult was added to injury five minutes later when David’s initial effort was parried into the path of a grateful Ademola Lookman who tapped into an empty net. 

Carrick knew the game was up from there, illustrated by his decision to withdraw Fernandes with half an eye on the weekend’s clash with bitter rivals Leeds where they’ll go in search of their first away league win this season. The evening turned out to be rather straightforward for Atletico, although that’s something they’re becoming used to having now won 10 of their last 12 UCL group stage/league phase games. 

Match Events

0' The match is about to start!

1' GOAL! With less than a minute gone, Baena assists Barrios to score! Atletico 1-0 Man Utd

7' Grimaldo's shot is saved by Lammens

9' Carrick's face is full of worry

12' Mbeumo beats the defender and shoots wide

15' Rashford swings and misses

17' Highlight from Atletico vs Man Utd

21' Official lines show Atlético not offside

25' Match Event for Atletico vs Man Utd

26' Highlight from Atletico vs Man Utd

27' Grimaldo's free kick hits the woodwork

42' Álvarez's long-range shot goes over

45' Cardozo scores, but Llorente's handball comes first and it's disallowed

Line-ups

Atletico XI: Oblak, Grimaldo, Llorente, Dávid Hancko, Cristian Romero, Álex Baena, Kang-in Lee, Alvarez, Johnny Cardoso, Giuliano Simeone, Barrios

Subs: Sørloth, Musso, Le Normand, Lookman, Jonathan David, Morten Hjulmand, Arnau Ortiz, Marc Pubill, Rodrigo Mendoza, Dani Martinez, Jorge Castillo, Jorge Domínguez

Man Utd XI: Bruno Fernandes, Tielemans, Dalot, Rashford, Lisandro Martinez, Bryan Mbeumo, Senne Lammens, Yoro, Andrey Santos, Carlos Baleba, Ayden Heaven

Subs: Darlow, Maguire, Mount, De Ligt, Matheus Cunha, Zirkzee, Amad Diallo Traore, Dermot Mee, Shea Lacey, Tyler Fletcher, Daniel Armer, Harry Amass