5 Things we learned from Man United’s comfortable win over Sabah
That’ll do the job on our Champions League return. It was imperative that United got the win tonight considering how tough the rest of our fixtures are and that’s exactly what we did albeit against a poor opposition, we took some time to get going but the first goal eventually came in the 27th minute as Dorgu’s cross from the left was turned home by Matheus Cunha to score his first ever Champions League goal and open the scoring. From there Sabah probably should have equalised as a ball was hung up to the back-post where Mickels had a free header but could only hit the side netting to keep the score at 1-0, it looked like United would be a goal to the good at half-time but in the 41st minute Cunha played the ball to Tielemans who was running into the box and brilliantly played the ball back to Bruno Fernandes who’s first-time finish put United 2-0 up. Things got worse for Sabah just two minutes later as Mbeumo played Sesko clean through on goal who took the ball round the keeper and slid the ball into an empty net as United went into half-time 3-0 up, as expected United took the foot almost completely off the gas in the second half making changes with one eye on the Manchester derby on Sunday but they did manage one more in the 67th minute as Bruno Fernandes took a cheeky free-kick to Zirkzee who’s back-heel was blocked on the line but the keeper made an absolute mare allowing Lisandro Martinez to blast in from about a yard out. A nice way to open up our Champions League campaign but there’ll be much tougher games coming up in this competition with Atletico Madrid and Como on the horizon.
You can only beat what’s in front of you. I wasn’t overly surprised by Carrick going full strength tonight as anything but a win would have been catastrophic but in hindsight he probably could have rested a couple more players given how poor Sabah were on the night, I thought we started quite slow to be honest and looked really sloppy in the final third which has been a feature in our start to the season but Cunha’s goal seemed to settle everyone down and from there I thought we played a lot better for the rest of the half. Kobbie Mainoo yet again was the standout for me in midfield and in my opinion has been far and away our best player at the start of the season which might be going under the radar if you haven’t been watching United much this season, I was glad to see Benjamin Sesko in the starting 11 for the first time this season and he took his goal brilliantly to make it 3-0 right before half-time. Carrick took him off around the 60th minute so I hope that’s because he’s going to start on Sunday as I cannot be seeing Cunha in that position again this season, even Zirkzee when he came on looked a far more natural fit in that position than Cunha does so I hope that experiment is finished for the season. Defensively United weren’t really put under much pressure but I thought Leny Yoro had a good game alongside Lisandro Martinez who scored his first goal at Old Trafford tonight which was nice, overall it was an easy enough game for United who exerted very little energy ahead of the derby on Sunday. Bring it on.
A great experience for Sabah as a club. I couldn’t believe what I heard earlier this week that Sabah were only founded as a club back in 2017 and yet here we are in 2026 where they are playing Manchester United at Old Trafford in their first game in the league phase, I thought at points in the game they actually played quite well and really should have got on the scoresheet with two headers that went just wide. There was a clear discrepancy between the two teams but they played some lovely stuff mostly Ivan Lepinjica who I thought was their standout player on the night in midfield, defensively obviously they were quite poor and I thought that fourth goal was quite comical with the Sabah goalkeeper not knowing the ball was right under him and Lisandro Martinez stealing in to slam the ball home but overall I thought they applied themselves quite well considering the circumstances. They have some incredible fixtures left with Barcelona, Arsenal, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli in there so it’ll be a really exciting next few months for Sabah as a club, I’m looking forward to seeing how they get on.
What can United achieve in the Champions League this season? Ever since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013 United have been a bit of a joke in Europe’s elite competition, they’ve made the quarter-finals twice in 13 years in 2013/14 and 2018/19 going out to Bayern Munich and Barcelona respectively but it’s the other exits that have hurt me more. The last time we played in this competition we finished 4th in a group with Bayern, Galatasaray and Copenhagen with embarrassing losses to Galatasaray and Copenhagen costing us so I’m hoping the league phase can bring a change of fortune for us this season, our fixtures aren’t easy with away matches to Atletico Madrid, Como, Sporting Lisbon and Villareal along with home matches against Roma, RB Leipzig and Bayern but I think we have the team to at least compete with those teams unlike previous years. Roughly around ten points qualifies you for the next round so I would fully expect us to at least make the round of 32 this season, whether we get any further than that depends on the draw but I’m hoping we do ourselves proud in Europe this season. I wouldn’t be surprised if we didn’t though, only time will tell.
What’s up next for these two sides. For United they have a massive game on Sunday against Man City which will probably determine whether it’s been a good start to the season or not given the magnitude of the game, after that they take on Brighton in the Carabao cup on Wednesday at Old Trafford which I’m sure will be a game Carrick will rest a few players in. In the Champions League it gets much harder for United who take a trip to the Metropolitano to take on Atletico Madrid after the international break in October, for Sabah they are back in league action against Shafa whilst their next Champions League game is at home to Slavia Prague in a game they have to win if they want any chance of qualifying for the next round. It’s been a great week to open the Champions League so lets hope that continues heading into the weekend.