Young Manchester United U21s side defeat Monaco B on France trip | OneFootball

With no u18s or u21s fixtures over the Easter weekend for Manchester United, a combined squad went to France to gain some experience abroad.

The trip involves training sessions at Ligue 1 facilities along with friendlies against the reserves of French sides AS Monaco and OGC Nice.

The first encounter with Monaco ended with a 2-1 victory for United, while the meeting with Nice is still to come.

The club’s u21s enjoyed a similar trip to Monaco in 2022 and this time around have added INEOS-owned OGC Nice to the schedule as the connection under Jim Ratcliffe begins to blossom.

It was a very young side who featured under Travis Binnion against Monaco as they took on a physical test with the French side fielding an older side.

But the young Reds traded blow for blow with the Monegasques and went into the break at 0-0.

Just two minutes into the restart, United’s youngest player, 15-year-old Amir Ibragimov found the back of the net to make the breakthrough.

The home side equalised in the 66th minute through Sandro Bertolucci but United rolled back the years with a vintage Fergie Time special to secure the win late on.

Into injury time, 16-year-old Bendito Mantato darted in from the right wing to finish past Jules Stawiecki in the Monaco goal.

An impressive win from the young side in France, they weren’t the only United group who travelled abroad as younger age groups spread out as far as the USA, while some groups went to the Netherlands and Belgium.

The long weekend posed a good opportunity for United to provide a different experience and environment to the academy experience with Nick Cox saying, “Each trip has different aims depending on the age group involved. Whether it is for cultural education, experiencing playing teams outside of our domestic games programme or learning how to represent the club abroad, our players enjoy a huge amount of personal and professional development from these opportunities.”

United: Myles, Kamason, Jackson, Nolan, Missin, Bauman, Delaney, Curley, Amass, Wheatley, Ibragimov

Subs: Ogunneye, Aljofree, McAllister, Biancheri, Ennis, Harrison, Fredricsson, Williams, Mantato, Thwaites, Fletcher

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