Man United 2 Man City 0
Manchester United landed a psychological blow on their local rivals City as they won the first Manchester derby to take place outside England.
A year after their ill-fated attempts to play in Beijing, the two sides faced each other in Houston, Texas. And goals from new signing Romelu Lukaku and his striker partner Marcus Rashford secured a 2-0 victory for Jose Mourinho's team.
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But the Portuguese boss refused to read too much into the result and described the match as "a very good training session".
"Lukaku's superb goal from an acute angle and a Rashford drive proved the difference in Texas, where Jose Mourinho's United racked up their third friendly win as Pep Guardiola's City opened pre-season with a 2-0 defeat," says James Ducker of the Daily Telegraph.
The result may not mean anything but the Telegraph, and most other observers, were struck by the unimpressive debut of Man City's new goalkeeper, Ederson, who cost a world record fee of £34.7m this summer.
After his high-profile transfer – and City's goalkeeping travails with Claudio Bravo during the last campaign – "it is imperative he starts well next season", says the paper. "But these were inauspicious beginnings for the Brazil Under-23 international.”
Ederson was at fault for Lukaku's opener when he rushed from his goal and failed to clear the ball.
"It was the sort of erratic, rabbit-in-the-headlights goalkeeping for which Bravo was lampooned last term before Guardiola finally ran out of patience," says Ducker.
Two minutes later he was too easily beaten by Rashford for United's second.
But that wasn't all. His punching was less than convincing and, in the second half, he was almost beaten by a long-distance lob from Rashford.
After the game Guardiola, perhaps impressed by some late saves, said the goalkeeper's debut had been "outstanding".
"It was not," counters Paul Hirst of The Times.
"If Ederson repeats the kind of performance he showed in the first half last night, he will quickly become known as Bravo 2.0."
There were positives, however. "Phil Foden, who only turned 17 in May, belied his inexperience to put in a strong and confident display while Raheem Sterling drew two saves from David de Gea."
It was also City's first match of pre-season, so some rustiness was to be expected.
"United triumphed but, as the cliche goes, this was for bragging rights only," says Jamie Jackson of The Guardian. "For these two clubs the real stuff starts in mid-August."
