With blazing sunshine fading over a hot Dublin day, this penultimate friendly for Manchester United and Leeds United felt like a pre-season game on a far continent, not one staged a few hundred miles from the teams’ home across the Irish Sea.
The phoney-war element is always present whatever the locale, as players sharpen technique and fitness, so when Joshua Zirkzee’s instant left-foot shot met Diogo Dalot’s zipped-in cross and James Trafford saved low, all involved could be satisfied.
Even better for Michael Carrick’s men ensued: Bryan Mbeumo raced along the left and served the ball to Zirkzee who, again, hit a first-time effort that this time beat Trafford to his right.
Leeds had been scythed open, their right-side defenders, Jayden Bogle and Sebastiaan Bornauw, rendered awol by a lightning attack straight from the Carrick-Steve Holland training ground playbook.
Daniel Farke’s switch to a 3-5-2 at half-time of November’s 3-2 loss at Manchester City is credited, rightly, with saving their top-flight status, and the manager’s job.
Yet it can cause a retroactive-mode if the wingbacks retreat into a five-man rearguard. After Bogle and Rhys Chadwick did so, Mbeumo’s attempt, after one more United foray, underlined the problem.
More proactive, then, were two Ao Tanaka throw-ins that dipped into the area and posed those in red to scramble. When Leeds came straight back at them, a Tyler Fletcher shimmy backfired, and they profited.
The midfielder was robbed by Dan James who flipped the ball into the area where Brenden Aaronson stroked past Senne Lammens, who was helpless. So, too, Trafford when a Mbeumo rocket beat him, the bar saving Leeds, as, along the touchline, replacements prepared to enter for the second period.
Before the game, Carrick had issued an update on those not involved. “Marcus [Rashford], Licha [Martínez] and Kobbie [Mainoo] aren’t quite ready yet,” he said. “We’re preserving them for this weekend [against Milan in Wroclaw].”
Missing, too, were Mason Mount, as a precaution, Tom Heaton, whose problem is being assessed and Harry Maguire, who joined training on Wednesday.
“Tonight is going to be historical,” screeched the enthusiastic PA announcer when billing this inaugural meeting between two English clubs at the cavernous stadium.
But Carrick’s three half-time changes were hardly stellar names to please the capacity crowd. Off went Patrick Dorgu, Andrey Santos and Mbeumo for the fringe players, Toby Collyer, Daniel Armer, an 18-year-old debutant, and Tynan Thompson, given a first outing since joining recently.
Farke’s changes ran to 10, with only Bornauw surviving, so now the question was how disjointed the contest might be. Encouragingly, Harry Wilson and Alfie Cresswell tested Lammens, then slick Zirkzee footwork took him in on goal.
But further disruption followed when Carrick made six more changes, including the introduction of his captain, Bruno Fernandes, Youri Tielemans, his new £35m midfielder, and Matheus Cunha, who spearheaded the 4-2-3-1.
The result: a long lull before Lammens repelled a James Justin rasper, a Fernandes strike was ruled offside and the same player clipped the bar before penalties, to decide the Boyle Sports Cup, arrived.
Before the final whistle five fans rushed on for selfies with Fernandes and Tielemans – youngsters, sure, but a concerning security breach, especially as a sixth followed.
United won the shootout 5-4, Noussair Mazraoui netting the decisive kick, and the teams wandered away offering scant clue how their 2026-27 season will be.
The pre-season results of United now read this victory, 1–1 against Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday, 2–1 (Atlético Madrid), 5–0 (Rosenborg) and the 1–0 loss to Wrexham on 18 July. After this defeat, Leeds’s record is 2-0, against RB Leipzig, 4-2 (Liverpool), 1-0 win (Sunderland), and the 3-2 defeat, also to Wrexham, on 26 July.
Leeds finish their preparation by hosting Augsburg, while United make the trip to Poland. Last term they ended third, 24 points ahead of Leeds in 14th. Given the former’s thus far underwhelming transfer window – only Tielemans and Santos as major signings – they would take the same finish, as would Leeds, surely, as survival will be their priority.
