Manchester United Still Well Behind Real Madrid. We don’t have Real Madrid in the Premier League,” offered a relieved Jose Mourinho after watching his side get outclassed in the 2017 Uefa Super Cup Final in Skopje.
“We have top teams in the Premier League, but they are different teams, teams with different qualities.”
Mourinho is right; there is not an English club which is close to the Spanish, European and world champions at present.
United are back in the Champions League and could draw Madrid this season, but Mourinho’s priority is re-establishing United domestically with a serious tilt at the Premier League title.As the Portuguese and the 4,000 travelling Manchester United fans saw for themselves, they are still some way off the very best Real Madrid, winners of three of the last four Champions League trophies, showed why they were the best side on the planet at present.
They have not lost an international final since 2000 and won the last 10 in a row including four Champions League finals, three Uefa Super Cups and two World Club Cups.
Zinedine Zidane, the Real manager, said after the game that his team “never get tired of winning” and paid some compliments to United, but he knew too that his team were vastly superior.
“Against a rival like Manchester United, then the key is to control two or three aspects like the second ball in or playing the ball high…we controlled that well,” the Frenchman said.
“We didn’t let them play. When we had the ball, we made the difference. We hold and we control well. We were cool, we took our time and we finish our chances at the right moment.”
Mourinho had agreed, claiming that between the 20th and 40th minute of the match, Madrid played the perfect game. There were times when United could not get the ball from Madrid’s midfield, with man of the match Isco, who United once scouted, outstanding as he found space which appeared not to exist.
Toni Kroos, a genuine United target, brings balance and drive. Casemiro, a tank of a midfielder often overlooked by Rafa Benitez but highly regarded by Zidane, was a calming influence and goal threat. Luca Modric was sublime. And all that before anyone talks about Madrid’s venerated attackers.Mancheaster
United’s Ander Herrera, Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard ran and covered more ground than their foes, they had more possession too, but this was Madrid they were up against, not Ajax, United are still in the market for new players, ones which will help them reduce the gap between themselves and superior sides. It will take time, but Mourinho is making progress.Manchester
United, the Super Cup winners in 1991, have now lost three Super Cup finals in a row following defeats in 1999, 2008 and 2017.
Mourinho’s record against his former club is poor, with no wins in five matches, but Spanish clubs are football’s pre-eminent force. They have won eight of the last nine Super Cups and on the evidence of Tuesday’s game superbly staged in Skopje, that hegemony is set to continue.
It is not easy for the rest to watch, not that Madrid cared as they lifted yet another trophy.