By Augustine Akhilomen
Two Europe football giants will slug it out in today’s (Tuesday) UEFA Super Cup as Real Madrid face Manchester United at the magnificent Philip II Arena in the ancient city of Skopje, Macedonia.
Real Madrid are the current Champions League holder, a feat they achieve after thrashing Juventus 4-1 in the final in May to win it back-to-back while Manchester United edged Ajax 2-0 to clinched the Europa League title for the first time.
While the two teams have never met in the Super Cup, they have met 10 times in the European Champion Clubs’ Cup/UEFA
Champions League; Real Madrid have the advantage in the teams’ previous meetings, with four wins, four draws and two losses.
Both teams will be looking to start the new season by winning the Super Cup, as such the two managers will be bent on fielding their possible strongest squad.
It will be recall that at the International Champions Cup, the Red Devils defeated the White Angels 3-1 via a penalty shootouts after the game had ended 1-1 in regulation time.
Although the match may be considered as a preseason encounter to access the fitness of the players, however, tonight’s match is competitive in nature and is expected to be explosive in Macedonia.
While Man United manager, Jose Mourinho, who has never lost a cup final game will be hoping to add to his numerous laurels, Real Madrid manager, Zinedine Zidane will be targeting another trophy glory having won the Champions League back-to-back for Real.
More importantly, all eyes will be on four-time Ballon d’Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo as he faces his former club and former coach at Real Madrid even though that affection will be lost when the starts tonight.
Mourinho will be banking on his new recruits such as Namanja Matic, Romelu Lukaku plus the usual regulars Marcus
Rashford and Paul Pogba to help the team get a better of a Real Madrid side that will parade players such as Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Toni Kroos.
