David Moyes' first game in charge for the Red
Devils at Old Trafford ends in disappointing
fashion for the hosts as Unai Emery's side
played an impressive 90 minutes David Moyes’ Old Trafford career has got off to
a losing start as Sevilla picked up a 3-1 win
against Manchester United in Rio Ferdinand’s
testimonial.
The Spanish side scored twice in five minutes
in the first half to take a 2-0 lead thanks to Vitolo and Marko Marin, with the visitors well
worth the two-goal advantage.
United came back with a little more purpose
after half-time and pulled a goal back through
Antonio Valencia, but they were unable to get a
second as Sevilla’s backline generally remained solid and highly-rated Chilean Bryan Rabello
sealed the win in stoppage time.
Moyes named an unfamiliar-looking side for
his Old Trafford debut as Angelo Henriquez,
Fabio, Alex Buttner and Adnan Januzaj all
started, while man-of-the-moment Ferdinand featured at the back alongside Chris Smalling.
Sevilla – who have already played competitive
football this season – came to Old Trafford
fresh from a 6-1 win over Mladost Podgorica in
Montenegro on Thursday night, but
recognisable faces such as Gary Medel, Geoffrey Kondogbia and on-loan Chelsea man
Marko Marin appeared from the beginning.
In true testimonial fashion the match began at
a fairly slow speed and Sevilla started brighter,
with United fielding a weakened, but the early
touches of Belgian 18-year-old Januzaj caught the eye.
Unai Emery’s men clearly came to Old Trafford
intending to spoil the party and they took the
lead in the 21st minute as Diego Perotti fed a
pass into the area between Ferdinand and
Smalling, leaving Vitolo with the simple objective of poking the ball past David De Gea.
The La Liga side were starting to cut United
open at will and made it 2-0 four minutes later.
Carlos Bacca and Vitolo combined on the edge
of the area before the winger rolled the ball
across the face of the goal for Marin to tap in. Both sides had an excellent chance just prior to
the 40th minute as first Shinji Kagawa’s header
was saved a point-blank range by Beto, and
then Marin’s low effort was forced onto the
crossbar by De Gea, keeping the score at 2-0
going into the break. The second half began as a much tighter affair
with both sides creating few chances in the
first 10 minutes, although Januzaj did work a
good opening and shot over from inside the
area.
United noticeably increased the tempo and looked at their most threatening as the hour
mark approached, while Sevilla sat back and
invited pressure despite Bacca’s best efforts in
attack.
With around 25 minutes remaining Januzaj
took centre stage again and beat young Sevilla defender Israel Puerto down the left before
hammering a low cross into the danger area for
Antonio Valencia to knock into an empty goal.
In the 75th minute substitute Jesse Lingard
almost connected with a low Wilfried Zaha
cross at the far post, while subsequent efforts from Buttner and Michael Carrick failed to get
through a sea of Sevilla defenders.
An equaliser for United looked inevitable
leading up to stoppage time as Zaha burst away
from two opponents on the edge of the area,
but he could only shoot wide of the post and Bryan Rabello confirmed the win for Sevilla,
scoring a third after excellent play by Kevin
Gameiro.
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