Manchester United 2-1 CSKA Moscow: 5 Talking Points

#4 CSKA Moscow's defence couldn't keep up with United's pace

Romelu Lukaku was immense in attack and got the goal he deserved for all the enterprise he showed. Ignashevich, Vasin and Berezutski struggled but somehow kept things at 0-0 before they went 1-0 up, right on the verge of halftime.

On the wings, Nababkin and Mario Fernandes were outpaced and outsmarted on several occasions by the trickery of Marcus Rashford, Luke Shaw and Antonio Valencia.

On a night when United were finding it tough to come up with the final product, it was two lobbed balls into the box that shifted the tide in their favour. As both passes were served into the area, Victor Vasin was caught alone and vulnerable like a deer in the headlights not knowing how to deal with the danger.

United's attackers took time to get to polishing their virtues as they kept wasting one good chance after the other in the first half requiring the Moscow defence to do the bare minimum. But once the quality of the final ball improved, the CSKA defence fell like a deck of cards.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Amit Mishra