Battered, flattered Man Utd taught a lesson by 'super team' Juventus

Jose Mourinho's men may have only conceded once at Old Trafford but the gulf in class between the two sides was staggering

There have been many one-sided footballing lessons doled out on Champions League nights at Old Trafford over the years, but never before has it been like this.

The red tide enveloping opponents was a regular occurrence in the era of Sir Alex Ferguson but against Juventus – referred to as ‘one of Europe’s super teams’ in Jose Mourinho’s programme notes – it was Manchester United suffering as their visitors out-passed, out-ran, out-enthused, out-thought and ultimately outclassed a home side that did little more than sit back and watch the Bianconeri with mouths agape.

This was a 1-0 hammering.

The Old Lady looked her dazzling best in the first half, commanding 68 per cent of the ball and running rings around United at will. Paulo Dybala scored their goal during a period of pressure which saw Juve cut through the home side time and time again.

The Argentine had already threatened to score from a similar position, narrowly failing to get the desired contact on a goal-bound header from Juan Cuadrado’s cross after he had initially fed the ball to the Colombian after a probing run which caught Nemanja Matic flat-footed and out of position.

Despite that warning, Dybala was allowed to sweep the ball home moments later after Cristiano Ronaldo – on his return to his former club – had seen his cross for Cuadrado half-cleared by Chris Smalling.

There was barely any let-up and United looked leggy enough to speculate whether they had actually joined their manager Jose Mourinho in completing a half-mile dash to the stadium following pre-game traffic chaos.

They didn’t press, failing to get close to Juve in key areas. There was no urgency, with too many slack balls seeing them surrender possession on the rare occasions they had it.

Mourinho had gone with an unchanged side for the first time in 46 matches, sticking with what on paper looked like a more offensive 4-2-3-1 but, in practice, he appeared only to have squandered the chance to win the midfield battle, with none of his four attackers causing any kind of problems for the sturdy Juve defence.

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