Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has revealed that he trekked to Old Trafford before the UEFA Champions League clash against Juventus as their team bus was caught in traffic again.
In their last continental game against Valencia, the kick off time was delayed after the Manchester United team bus got stuck in traffic. The delay in kick off time against Valencia costed Manchester United as they were slapped with a fine from European football governing body, UEFA.
Despite switching their hotel the United’s team bus was caught in traffic yet again ahead of the Juventus clash.
In a pre-match interview before the Juventus tie, Mourinho revealed why he had to walked to Old Trafford, “Yes, as you know we change hotel. The hotel is just around the corner, the players are in the bus for 45 minutes and I walked with a hoodie in the middle of the fans, they didn’t recognise me, I took two minutes, they took 45 minutes in the bus.”
A Paulo Dybala goal was all that Juventus needed to compound Manchester United to a fourth home defeat at Old Trafford in all competitions with a 1-0 win in a UEFA Champions League group stage match on Tuesday 23rd October.
Just like in his Manchester United days Cristiano Ronaldo tormented Jose Mourinho’s defense with a devilish cross that was blocked by Chris Smalling on to the path of Paulo Dybala who finished with the simplest of tap-ins inside the six-yard area in the 17th minute. Juventus continued to boss the possession stats as Manchester United were starved off the ball in front of their home crowd.
Manchester United only mastered one effort on target in the first half which came off Paul Pogba’s headed effort from a Juan Mata free kick. Juventus went into the halftime break leading 1-0.
Juventus had a carbon copy start to the second half with Ronaldo testing the palms of David De Dea with a thunderbolt from the outside the penalty area that was tipped over by the Spaniard shot-stopper. As the second half progressed Jose Mourinho’s men grew into the game and found the upright in the 74th minute when Pogba pounced on a loose ball to let loose a ferocious effort that cannoned off the cross to Szczesny’s head to go out for a corner.
Juventus withered a late storm by Manchester United to hold on for the 1-0 win to extend their lead at the summit of Group H with nine points from three games while United remain second with four points.