Manchester United 2 Benfica 0: Daley Blind adds to keeper Mile Svilar’s own goal

FROM a distance it all looks fine and dandy.

Red Rom sniffed out a few chances, pulled the trigger a couple of times, played the pass into Nemanja Matic that led to the opener.

Beyond that, though, The Untouchable barely got a kick. United’s win, a fourth successive victory in the Champions League group phase, masks some serious issues up front. Romelu Lukaku’s luck is out. Even when he claimed the ball to take United’s 77th minute spot kick, Jose Mourinho signalled from the bench for Daley Blind to take it. Blind, promoted to penalty-taking duties, notched emphatically.

Lukaku’s goals, the nine in 10 stats that people were cooing about a few weeks ago, have dried up. The big No9, the man Mourinho hung his hat on when he paid Everton £75million for him in the summer, has stopped scoring. It is six games since the ball last rippled the net, when he scored the final goal in the 4-0 destruction of Crystal Palace, way back on September 30. In football’s ludicrous spin cycle, that is an awful long time ago. Benfica went the same way as Tottenham, leaving Old Trafford bitterly disappointed after being beaten in his Champions League game. It was another moment of outrageous misfortune for Benfica keeper Mile Svilar when Nemanja Matic’s left-footer rebounded off the base of his left hand post and ended up in the back of the net. He will be troubled by Lukaku’s form, especially ahead of Sunday’s trip to Stamford Bridge. Chelsea, remember, were the team out-manoeuvred by Mourinho when he snatched the striker from Goodison Park in the summer. The Special One has a few days to work out a battle-plan. He will be satisfied with this, an OK performance on a night when Benfica came hunting for a surprise win. At times United were dazzled by the trickery of Pizzi, Ljubomir Fejsa and Andreas Samaris in the centre of Benfica’s midfield. Pizza, in particular, was the pick of them. His first half strike, fading away from David de Gea, forced Manchester United’s keeper to fling himself to left to tip it away. It was a top class save. He is at the top now, in a position that Svilar is dreaming about as he makes his way in the game. The poor fella was to blame when Marcus Rashford scored 64 minutes into United’s 1-0 victory in Portugal a couple of weeks back. Here he looked to have atoned for the error, the hero when he saved Anthony Martial’s first half penalty. He had Benfica’s noisy supporters bouncing up and down in a corer of the old Scoreboard End when he made the right call and dived to his right. It was one of those satisfying moments, a good start to the day for one of the game’s brightest prospects. Martial, scorer of the winner against Tottenham on Saturday after coming on as a controversial second half substitute, was far too casual about it. His strike was nonchalant, far too careless after Douglas foolishly handballed inside the area after he collided with Martial.

Svilar came to Benfica’s rescue.

He saved well again from Lukaku when the big man wriggled his way into a shooting position midway through the first half.

This time, Benfica’s keeper turned his effort around his left hand post.

So far so good for Svilar.

That was until the final minute of the half, when Matic lined up his strike from the edge of the area.

It was a decent enough strike off his left boot, but it cruelly rebounded off the base of the post and into the net via Svilar’s back.

From The Sun