Isco Dazzles… As Real Lift Super Cup

Isco 

Real Madrid won the European Super Cup in Skopje, Macedonia, at the expense of Manchester United with a considerably brighter performance than anything displayed in preseason.

Casemiro opened the scoring for the European champions and Isco added a classy second before Romelu Lukaku pulled one back for Jose Mourinho’s side just after the hour mark.

Positives

After Real’s woeful tour of the U.S., this was about as good a performance as Zinedine Zidane could have hoped for with Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench after his extended holiday and some of his side struggling for form and fitness. United’s midfield were largely dominated and Mourinho’s side restricted to five shots on target.

Negatives

Madrid switched off for a spell in the second half just after Gareth Bale had rattled the crossbar and allowed United back into the contest while Zidane’s defence struggled at times under high balls and handed Lukaku the freedom of the penalty area to equalise.

Manager rating out of 10

Zidane was right to bench Ronaldo but perhaps could have brought on Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio after an hour to turn the screw when Real were 2-0 up and Karim Benzema and Bale tiring.

 

Tags: