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The SuperCupNI came to a close on Friday night with Manchester United u18s taking on Valencia in their last match.
United got off to a bad start though with Valencia taking the lead within the opening five minutes. Pablo Lopez burst through a gap of space to break into box between the Habeeb Ogunneye and Reece Munro before slotting easily into the bottom right corner.
Valencia doubled their lead minutes later when Louis Jackson was too casual when shielding the ball back David Otorbi to run in and score.
In the 12th minute, Otorbi comes close to adding another when he was played in behind James Nolan and lofted an attempt from wide that pinged off the outside of the post.
Soon after, Jackson made up for his earlier mistake by powering in a header from Adam Berry’s whipped in free kick to bring United back to within one.
But just past the 20 minute mark Valencia restored their two goal lead. A short pass back to Tom Wooster put him in trouble but after initially doing well to dribble out of it, the keeper misplayed his pass and Valencia pounced to add a third.
Otorbi was causing havoc down the right wing and was left free to run in behind and round past Wooster who was well out of his goal before showboating his way to rolling the ball into the net to make it 1-4.
It was all Otorbi as once again he raced down the right wing and centred to a teammate in the box but some fantastic last ditch defending by Ogunneye made sure to clear the opportunity.
Just before the half, Finley McAllister stretched play out wide to Ethan Williams who drove into box and was taken down for a penalty. Adam Berry stepped up and smashed the ball over the bar and possibly out of the stadium.
United made three changes at the break in an attempt to turn things around but it was short lived as skipper McAllister saw red seven minutes into the second half for a recklessly high challenge. United’s second red card in three matches which also concerningly add to the u16s three red cards during their SuperCupNI endeavours.
Valencia’s Miguel Montferry pipped in to steal a loose pass at the back and then poked the ball past Tom Myles in goal but fortunately for United the ball rolled across the goal before being cleared.
In the 65th minute, a superb cross field through ball from Munro found James Scanlon running through to finish and bring one back for United.
Late on Scanlon was found with another switch of play and cut in onto his right foot to strike at the edge of box but it was blocked out for a corner.
With the man advantage, Valencia ultimately played out the match maintaining their two goal lead and were crowned the champions of the SuperCupNI. Meanwhile, United capped off a disappointing week in Northern Ireland as they finished bottom of the table with zero points.
United: Wooster (Myles 41), Ogunneye, Munro, Jackson, Nolan, McAllister, Moorhouse (Baumann 55), Missin (Scanlon 41), Berry (Kamason 55), Williams, Biancheri (Musa 41)
Unused subs: Kaba
