adminJAVIER HERNANDEZ confirmed a Manchester United versus Liverpool clash in Miami today with a diving header to seal a 3-1 victory against Real Madrid in front of the biggest crowd ever to witness a football game in the United States.Hernandez’s eightieth minute goal was enough to ensure a 3-1 win against Real after two first-half strikes from Ashley Young, either side of a Gareth Bale penalty, had given Louis van Gaal’s team a 2-1 half-time lead.
With Liverpool having already secured top spot in their International Champions Cup group, United’s victory guaranteed that English football’s two superpowers will meet at Miami’s Sun Life Stadium today to contest the final, but Florida will not witness a crowd anywhere close to the 109,318 that packed into Michigan University’s Big House.
“It’s Liverpool in the final?” said Van Gaal. “Ok! Thank-you! It is good for English football and very important that two teams from the Premier League will play in the final.
“It is also preparation time for them and, in the long term, it won’t tell us anything. But it is better to win than lose. The crowd here was amazing. Within fourteen days, we have played for more than 300,000 fans in the States and that is amazing in preparation time.”
United’s victories against AS Roma and Inter Milan prior to the encounter with Real had taken Van Gaal’s team into top spot, ensuring that they would progress to today’s final if they avoided defeat here.
Real, in contrast, had lost both group fixtures against the Italian clubs and knew that their next stop would be Madrid, with Carlo Ancelotti’s team returning home to continue preparation for the new La Liga season and the Uefa Super Cup clash with Sevilla in Cardiff on August 12.
Ancelotti had chosen not to risk the fitness of Cristiano Ronaldo against his former club, with recent
£63m signing James Rodriguez and French forward Karim Benzema missing to the tour of the United States due to their extended runs at the World Cup.
But despite the absence of some of Real’s star names, this remained a box office occasion for the Michigan college town of Ann Arbor and its enormous stadium.
Tickets for the fixture sold out within a day of going on sale earlier this year, ensuring it would surpass the 94,194 crowd which attended the 1994 World Cup between Italy and Brazil at the Pasadena Rose Bowl as the biggest ever to witness a soccer game in the States.
The crowd was also the biggest that United played in front of since their 1957 European Cup semi-final against Real at the Santiago Bernabeu, when 120,000 turned out to see the home side defeat the Busby Babes.
Van Gaal’s players began the game much brighter than the European champions and captain Darren Fletcher went close to opening the scoring on fourteen minutes when he shot just wide from twenty yards after being teed up by Rooney.
United took the lead on twenty minutes, however, when Young finished off a stunning move of twenty passes, with Fletcher playing a key role in final outcome.
Having receive the ball from Antonio Valencia, the Scotland midfielder broke forward before passing to Rooney on the edge of the penalty area.
Rooney’s back-heel to Danny Welbeck saw the ball moved on to Young and the England winger beat Iker Casillas from twelve yards to put United ahead.
Real bounced back quickly, though, with the pace and power of Bale proving too much for the inexperienced United defender Michael Keane, who hauled the Welshman to the ground to concede a twenty-seventh minute penalty.
And the red-shirted majority inside the stadium were on their feet again on thirty-six minutes when Young scored his second goal of the game with a curling effort from twenty yards.
Although Rooney attempted to claim the goal, suggesting he had made the slightest of contact with an attempted header, replays showed the goal to be Young’s.
Despite being unable to win the group, though, Real upped the tempo on the second-half and submitted United to sustained pressure.
Bale saw a free-kick hit the post, with Isco only denied by a reflex save by De Gea as United, with Keane and Tyler Blackett in the back-three, battled to hold on.
But with Bale joined on the pitch by Ronaldo for the final nineteen minutes, United broke clear to claim a third and secure victory when Hernandez headed in at the far post from Shinji Kagawa’s cross.
Bale stepped up to take the penalty himself before sending David de Gea the wrong way to equalise from the spot.
With Ronaldo watching from the bench, Bale clamed centre-stage as Real’s leading light and the former Tottenham winger almost put the Spaniards ahead with an audacious overhead kick four minutes after his penalty.
It was a well-executed effort by Bale, but on this occasion, De Gea was able to react quickly enough to save the shot.
With both teams playing carefree attacking football, the Michigan crowd was undoubtedly getting value for money. — The Telegraph
Online Reporter