Mourinho hails Lukaku & Matic despite open goal miss, defensive blunders

Romelu Lukaku earned praise for his competitive Manchester United debut from Jose Mourinho, despite missing an open goal in Tuesday’s 2-1 defeat to Real Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane’s men claimed UEFA Super Cup glory in Skopje thanks to goals from Casemiro and Isco, with Lukaku netting just after the hour to reduce the deficit.

However, the £75million striker had blazed an earlier chance over the bar from inside the six-yard box, after Keylor Navas had saved from Paul Pogba.

Despite that miss potentially denying United a chance at taking the Champions League winners the distance, Mournho was happy with his new number nine.

“He tried, and of course he missed his chance with an open goal but he scored his goal,” Mourinho told a news conference. 

“He had a good fight against two good central defenders and I’m happy with his period and I’m happy with the way he fits into – I’m not tired to repeat – an amazing group.”

Alongside Lukaku, Victor Lindelof and Nemanja Matic made competitive debuts for United.

Matic afforded Dani Carvajal space to assist Casemiro’s opener before the Serbian was beaten by a one-two between Isco and Gareth Bale for the Spaniard’s clincher.

But Mourinho was nevertheless impressed with his former Chelsea charge: “I think he played really well, I think in the moment they were moving the ball well of course was difficult for us in the midfield.

“But you know in our good moment he was really good, especially in our period of dominance in the second half after the 2-0.

“He was what we wanted him to be, to move the ball in a simple way to give balance to the team to start building from the back and he’s a player with great experience, many years at the highest level and good experience good stability.”