Jose Mourinho insisted Juan Mata was “fine” with his decision to substitute him in the dying moments of Manchester United’s Community Shield victory against Leicester City – just 29 minutes after introducing the Spain midfielder from the bench.
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Jesse Lingard, who scored the final goal of the Louis van Gaal era with the victor in the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace, put United ahead before half-time when he ran 40 yards and beat four men to slot home.
And Mourinho paid tribute to Van Gaal – who he worked with at Barcelona – for the laying the groundwork for United’s victory. I’m super happy. This is why I came.
Goals from Jesse Lingard and Zlatan Ibrahimovic cancelled out a Jamie Vardy equaliser as United lifted their second trophy at Wembley in three months.
Premier League champions Leicester were undone by Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Wembley, with the star recruit’s 83rd-minute victor deciding the contest on Sunday.
Mourinho dedicated the win to his predecessor Louis van Gaal, among others. We are in pre-season and we played against a big big team.
“My ambition is a stupid ambition”, Mourinho added. I have to confess because it is an impossible ambition. “I put my hand on the surface and thought “wow, we’re in trouble” because we wanted a fast pitch”.
“40 points [is our aim for this season]”, Ranieiri said.
But Mourinho, who sold Mata to United during his first season back as Chelsea manager in 2013-14, says he made the change to help run out the clock while leaving his team capable of defending from late set-pieces.
“If you look over the season Leicester worked very hard to win the league and we worked very hard to win the Cup”.
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He continued: “So this win is for him and in addition I dedicate it to the Manchester United players who were not involved in the game”. This was a very important game for us – it was hard a year ago to reach the [FA Cup] final and win the cup, so it’s an honour if you can play this game.
