Miralem Pjanic incredibly scored from his own half, but Roma hit the post and were beaten 3-2 by Manchester United.
Miralem Pjanic incredibly scored from his own half, but Roma hit the post and were beaten 3-2 by Manchester United.
These teams began the Guinness International Champions Cup in Denver just days after Louis Van Gaal’s side had crushed LA Galaxy 7-0 in a friendly. The Giallorossi were fresh from their 1-0 win over Liverpool, but two weeks behind United in pre-season training as Serie A only starts on August 31.
Both Coaches tried to make a point, as Manchester City target Mehdi Benatia and Tom Cleverley wore the captain’s armbands.
Mattia Destro thought he had opened the scoring after just 83 seconds when he drew out Sam Johnstone and hit the lob from 20 metres, but it bounced back over the bar of an open goal.
In the extraordinary heat and humidity in Colorado, the sides were allowed breaks for water every 25 minutes.
Alessandro Florenzi’s shot was blocked after Destro hesitated on a Benatia assist, but Wayne Rooney scored with United’s first real chance. He was 20 metres out, turned and curled a magnificent right-foot strike into the far top corner.
Moments later Juan Mata burst through the defence, but his lob was too weak to trouble Lukasz Skorupski. However, the ex-Chelsea man learned from that error and beat the Roma goalkeeper with a similar move on Rooney’s assist.
Johnstone rushed off his line to punch a bouncing ball off the head of Juan Manuel Iturbe, but Urby Emanuelson clattered into the back of Danny Welbeck for a penalty, which Rooney converted.
There were numerous substitutions for the second half and Destro was again hesitant, eventually hitting the side-netting after dribbling past two defenders in the box, Florenzi’s half-volley was off target and Adem Ljajic’s long-range free kick dipped just over the bar.
Miralem Pjanic came off the bench and scored an absolutely sensational goal, spotting the ‘keeper off his line for an incredible lob from inside his own half. Pjanic had scored a 50-yarder the day before when visiting the Denver Broncos, so perhaps that inspired him to take this shot.
Moments later Francesco Totti had a shot charged down, then Leandro Castan had an extraordinary overhead kick fingertipped on to the post by Ben Amos.
The referee awarded a penalty for a Michael Keane handling offence and Totti converted with a thunderbolt.
Man Utd 3-2 Roma
Scorers: Rooney 36, pen 45 (M), Mata 39 (M), Pjanic 76 (R), Totti pen 89 (R)
Man Utd: Johnstone (Amos 46); Jones (M Keane 46), Evans (Smalling 46), Blackett; Valencia (Young 46), Cleverley (Hernandez 69), Herrera (Kagawa 46), James (Shaw 46), Welbeck (Nani 46); Mata (Lingard 46), Rooney (W Keane 46)
Roma: Skorupski; Calabresi (Somma 46), Benatia (Balasa 67), Romagnoli (Castan 46), Emanuelson (Cole 46); Uçan (Sanabria 67), Keita (Pjanic 67), Paredes (Nainggolan 46); Iturbe (Ljajic 46), Destro (Totti 67), Florenzi (Borriello 67)