In their final match of the American tour, Manchester United look to cap off their International Champions Cup journey against French giants Paris Saint-Germain. A win for United will give them a second straight preseason title in the States. Last year, they defeated Northwest Derby rivals Liverpool to claim the preseason title.
The game will take place at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois.
Manchester United’s last fixture
The last time the Red Devils took the pitch, they defeated Barcelona 3-1 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara. Wayne Rooney headed home the opening goal off of an Ashley Young corner just minutes after Luis Suarez hit the woodwork.
United doubled the lead just after the hour mark through academy product Jesse Lingard. Tyler Blackett got the ball on the edge of the six and pulled it back to Lingard who coolly slotted it home.
In the 90th minute, Barca pegged one back via a delightful Rafinha volley. However just seconds later, Adnan Januzaj sealed the victory after a sublime first touch put Marc Bartra on the floor before he side-footed home the dagger.
PSG’s last fixture
The French champions faced off against Fiorentina in their last game at Red Bull Arena coming out as 4-2 victors. It took past the half hour mark for them to get kicking with Blaise Matuidi finishing off a Gregory van der Wiel cross with his left foot.
Just a few minutes later, Jean-Kevin Augustin made it 2-0 with the assist coming from Matuidi. Joaquin halved the lead just past the hour mark curling home a delightful effort into the top corner.
However, goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Augustin would seal the game before a Giuseppe Rossi penalty gave the Viola a consolation goal.
The matchup
Once again expect both teams to come out with their respective squads that should come out for each team’s first fixtures barring injuries or players that played in the Copa America.
With that in mind, usual PSG regulars such as David Luiz, Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore, and Edinson Cavani are not with the team.
Les Parisiens signed two players this summer. Kevin Trapp was brought in to replace aging goalkeeper Salvatore Sirigu. He was bought from Eintracht Frankfurt for 10 million Euros. They also bought Benjamin Stambouli from Tottenham Hotspur for 8.6 million Euros.
PSG will kick off their season against Lyon for the Trophee des Champions, also known as the French Super Cup.
Meanwhile, United should have the same team as the one that started against Barcelona. With PSG manager Laurent Blanc claiming that the transfer over Angel Di Maria is nearly completed, it’s going to be quite interesting to see how Blanc and van Gaal react in both the pre-match and post-match.
Dutchman Daley Blind is poised for a center back role to start the season with Phil Jones looking likely as his partner. However with Chris Smalling being the more consistent of the two Englishmen at the latter part of last season, it is a mystery why van Gaal has not started him with Blind yet.
With the signing of Sergio Romero the other day, look for him to get some playing time in second half over Sam Johnstone. Johnstone started the first couple of games of the tour and came on for David de Gea in the second half against Barca.
The youth movement is still very much part of the Manchester United mantra. Most of the team they bring on in the second half is composed of youth and academy players. Adnan Januzaj, Andreas Pereira, and Jesse Lingard have impressed through preseason so we’ll see in the near future if they’re going to get playing time during the season.