July 30, (THEWILL) – In their penultimate preseason game in Oslo, Manchester United lost 1-0 to Atletico Madrid in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo, thanks to a late goal from Joao Felix and a red card for Fred.
Without their Portuguese striker, the Red Devils missed great opportunities through early forays into the Atletico danger area by Anthony Martial and Anthony Elanga. In the second half, both Harry Maguire and Saul Niguez also failed to direct their respective headers into the net.
Before Fred was sent off in stoppage time for a second bookable offence, the game appeared destined to end scoreless until substitute Joao Felix hammered a low shot beyond David de Gea to give Atletico victory.
Coincidentally, Atletico has come up recently as an optional destination for Ronaldo after he declared that he wanted to leave United during this transfer window. However, the La Liga team has stated that they were through with transfer business for the summer.
Although Ronaldo was not included in the team to play the Saturday friendly against Atletico, he confirmed he was going play for United in Sunday’s friendly against Rayo Vallecano in what will be his first outing for the club since the arrival of new manager Erik ten Hag.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
