Mourinho fuels red card
Romelu Lukaku bagged his first goal in a Manchester United shirt on Monday as the 10-man Premier League giants laboured to a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake in Utah.
Lukaku, who joined the Red Devils from Everton in a reported 75-million-pound transfer last week, fired United ahead on 38 minutes, latching on to a low cross from Henrikh Mkhitaryan.
The 24-year-old Belgian international striker had also been involved in United's equaliser scored by Mkhitaryan in the 29th minute after Luis Silva had given Salt Lake a shock early lead.
Lukaku used his strength and physical presence to hold off the Real defense to feed Jesse Lingard, who provided the pass for Mkhitaryan to score.
United manager Jose Mourinho was pleased with Lukaku's display, saying the he was now a "top striker."
"It's just nice for him, not important for me," Mourinho said of Lukaku's first United goal. "Before he scored the goal I told him I love everything you do on the pitch. He gets behind people, works and presses well. I like everything he does.
"It's easy to feel it because he was my player four years ago his evolution has been great. He's now a top striker. The goal is just a detail, not important."
United's win was marred by the second-half dismissal of Antonio Valencia for a reckless lunge on Sebastian Saucedo.
Valencia was given his marching orders after a lengthy consultation between the match referee and Mourinho.
The referee had told Mourinho to take the player off or risk his getting a red card. However, Mourinho did not agree that it was a sending-off incident and told the referee that he would not bring Valencia off, leaving the official with no choice.
"The referee asked me to change the player and I didn't because I don't agree with the card," Mourinho said, before appearing to suggest Saucedo was to blame. "[He] was really aggressive in the second half. That's what happens. Some other actions were a bit dangerous."
"It's young people with enthusiasm playing against Manchester United but it's a friendly match and it's a different mentality. But it's preseason so no problem. It is good experience or us to play with one player less."
The United goals were the rare highlights of a disjoined first half performance from Mourinho's side, who had travelled to Utah earlier Monday from their Los Angeles training camp.
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