Manchester United face Paris Saint-Germain in Chicago in their final pre-season game before returning to England to prepare for their Barclay’s Premier League opener against Tottenham Hotspur.
Believe it or not, the two European heavyweights have never faced each other before, so the game is hopefully to be the first of many spectacles between the pair. It is of course more than possible that they could meet in the Champions League as long as both teams are present in the competition.
United are unbeaten in International Champions Cup history – a stat which they will look to uphold as they face the French champions. In the last two seasons, they have beaten Real Madrid, Liverpool, Barcelona and Roma on penalties, amongst others.
PSG on the other hand come into this game on the back of a defeat on penalties to Chelsea, who are also playing in the North American edition of the ICC, but have and will not face United this summer.
Manchester United are currently sitting in second place in the mini league table, one point behind New York Red Bulls, who have played all of their games. PSG are two points behind United, on seven points. A win in either normal time or after penalties would see United finish their pre-season with the International Champions Cup trophy for the second consecutive season, whilst a PSG win would see them lift the trophy – but only if they win in 90 minutes; this game is essentially a final.
Louis van Gaal and Laurent Blanc are expected to put out strong sides – with the former likely to field a team similar to the one we’ll see against Spurs on the 8th August.
Antonio Valencia, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javier Hernandez could all feature after getting over injuries – with the latter only likely to come off the bench if he is handed a chance to impress, whereas the other two could start the game in bids to raise their fitness for the upcoming Premier League opener.
As for the PSG side, Salvatore Sirigu, Thiago Silva and Edinson Cavani were all on the bench against Chelsea so are expected to re-enter the fray in Chicago, whilst star striker Ibrahimovic is still likely to start despite questions over his future.
Overshadowing the game somewhat is the mystery of Angel di Maria’s whereabouts. The superstar is AWOL, having not reported for pre-season with United amid suggestion that he could be joining none less than Paris Saint-Germain themselves. Laurent Blanc seems confident that the Argentinian midfielder will make the switch to Paris this summer but the player himself has stated on numerous occasions this summer that he wishes to stay with United, so the situation is foggy to say the least.
Possible line-ups:
Manchester United: De Gea; Valencia, Smalling, Jones, Shaw; Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin; Mata, Memphis, Young; Rooney
Paris Saint-Germain: Sirigu; van der Wiel, Silva, Luiz, Maxwell; Matuidi, Verratti, Rabiot; Cavani, Ibrahimovic, Lucas
The game kicks off at 2:05 BST on Thursday morning and we’ll have a live blog running from 1am right through until full-time, with the usual pre-match chatter and of course, live updates throughout the game.
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