Manchester United will host Group-F leaders Atalanta in round three of the UEFA Champions League. Both teams enter this match after winning their matches in the last round.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored an injury-time winner to secure a 2-1 victory for Manchester United over Villareal in the second round. The Red Devils were lucky to escape with three points.
The Red Devils have scored three goals and conceded the same number of goals. In the match against Villareal, they attempted ten shots towards the opposition goal and 50% of the shots were on target. Alex Telles scored a volley from just outside the opposition box and Ronaldo scored from the edge of the 6-yard box. Six shots were attempted from inside the opposition box and the xG rate was 1.19. Against Young Boys, Manchester United attempted only two shots and both shots were on target.
Manchester United attempted fewer shots than their opponents in both games. Aaron Wan-Bissaka red card against Young Boys proved to be the decisive factor in the match. The Swiss side dominated the game after that and scored a late winner.
Manchester United players were unable to win most of their defensive duels in the match against Villareal. Goalscorer Alex Telles contested five defensive duels and lost all of them. Diogo Dalot contested 11 duels and he won two duels and two duels ended in a 50-50 contest. Raphael Varane was the only defender who won all of his duels. Most of the duels were lost in the middle third and defensive third.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the highest goalscorer for the Red Devils with two goals. His fellow countryman Bruno Fernandes has provided two assists in two games. Aaron Wan-Bissaka will be available for this game after his suspension was reduced to one game. Fred and Cavani could also feature after missing the weekend game against Leicester City.
Atalanta have made an unbeaten start to the Champions League season. The Italian club played a thrilling 2-2 draw against Villareal in the first round and defeated Young Boys in the second round by a scoreline of 1-0.
Atalanta dominated young boys and attempted 14 shots in the match. The xG rate of the team was 2.12. The Italian side created 54 positional attacks in the previous game and 38 positional attacks against Villareal. 13 shots were attempted against Villareal and four were on target for them. Atalanta’s xG rate against the Spanish opponents was 1.21.
Atalanta players dominated their opponents in almost every stat. Rafael Toloi made the highest recoveries in the opposition half and he attempted 16 passes into the opposition third. Merih Demiral was dominant in the air and he won five aerial duels along with seven recoveries in the opposition half.
Atalanta have three different goalscorers in this campaign. Remo Freuler and Robin Gosens scored in the first match and Matteo Pessina scored the winner against Young Boys. Striker Duvan Zapata has two assists to his name.
The winner of this match will go to the top of the table in Group-F. Atalanta have played a very attacking style of football and will prove to be a tough opponent against a struggling Manchester United side.
