Manchester United secured a comfortable 4-0 win over Sabah in their first Champions League game for nearly three years.
After a competitive opening 27 minutes, a misplaced pass in midfield led to a break by the hosts. Patrick Dorgu sent in a low cross from the left, and Matheus Cunha turned the ball past goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov to put United ahead. Bruno Fernandes doubled the lead in the 42nd minute, and Benjamin Sesko added a third just before the interval. Lisandro Martinez scored a fourth midway through the second half, capitalising on a terrible defensive mix-up to strike from a yard out.
The Athletic's Laurie Whitwell analyses the key talking points from the game at Old Trafford.
Sesko lasted 64 minutes in his first start since May 3. He picked up where he left off after his goal-scoring cameo off the bench against Everton at the weekend. He scored United's third goal just before half-time, timing his run onto Bryan Mbeumo's pass perfectly, rounding goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov, keeping his feet, and sliding a finish into the empty net. His trademark leap into the air to celebrate was met with a raucous noise from the crowd, pleased that the form the 23-year-old Slovenian showed at the end of his 2025-26 debut year had not been interrupted by the injury that kept him out during pre-season.
He was out for much longer than expected after being withdrawn at half-time of the visit by Liverpool four months ago, having been pushed into the advertising hoardings by Ibrahima Konate. A shin injury he had been nursing was exacerbated by that collision, and United allowed him to fully recuperate while training hard at Carrington, rather than feature in any of their six summer friendlies. He was straight into action as
Source: www.nytimes.com — Read the original article
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