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Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick has urged his team to score first against Atletico Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League Round of 16 encounter.
The interim coach believes Los Rojiblancos’ ability to shut shop after scoring a goal could make life difficult for the English giants on Tuesday night.
Manchester United and Atletico Madrid played out a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Spain last month.
Following Joao Felix’s seventh-minute opener, the Spanish champions ceded possession to the visitors and mostly depended on counter-attacks. Having chased the game for 73 minutes, United’s blushes were finally saved by an Anthony Elanga equalizer.
Rangnick is wary of Atletico’s knack for playing a low block and believes it is “very important” for United to score first at Old Trafford. Speaking at a pre-match conference ahead of the second leg, the German said (via Mirror):
“It's very important [not to concede first], even more so against a team like Atletico who don't mind the other team having the ball. I mean, in the last four or five games they played, including their league games, they had less than 50% possession of the ball.”
He added:
“We are aware of that and we need to make sure that if possible we don't concede at all but, yes, it would be definitely important to score the first goal ourselves.”
Manchester United are coming into the match on the back of a 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. Hat-trick hero Cristiano Ronaldo was their undisputed star performer on Saturday and is expected to play a starring role again on Tuesday night.
Manchester United receive injury boost ahead of crucial Champions League clash against Atletico Madrid
Manchester United stars Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay, and Luke Shaw were absent in Saturday’s exhilarating 3-2 win over Spurs.
While Fernandes and Shaw missed out due to COVID, McTominay was unable to recover from his calf injury in time.
Much to the pleasure of the Red Devils, all three players rejoined first-team training on Monday and trained normally with their teammates.
As confirmed by Ralf Rangnick (via Manchester Evening News), there is some uncertainty over Shaw’s match fitness.
Bruno Fernandes, the tournament’s leading assist provider in 2021-22, on the other hand, has fully recovered and is available for selection.
