Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford on target as United dispatch City

Manchester United’s promising pre-season took an even brighter turn on Thursday evening, as José Mourinho’s men saw off Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City 2-0 at the NRG Stadium in Houston. Two goals in as many minutes at the end of the first half did the damage, with summer signing Romelu Lukaku and Marcus Rashford both on the scoresheet.

The former’s goal came after some reckless goalkeeping from City’s own new arrival, Ederson, though the Belgian attacker still had plenty of work to do after the shot-stopper came haring off his line. However, with great composure he slotted the ball home from a narrow angle out on the left side of the penalty area, and netted his second goal in as many United matches.

Rashford’s strike, coming two minutes later, was rather more routine. Sent through by Henrikh Mkhitaryan, the United academy product was left with the simple task of slotting beyond Ederson from the right side of the box. The goalkeeper could perhaps have done a little better, but any error was far less egregious than that on Lukaku’s opener.

United remained on top for the remainder of the match, and Lukaku would’ve had a second were it not for City’s woodwork. Of course, it remains very early days — this was City’s very first match on their American tour — but Mourinho will surely be very satisfied with what he’s seen so far.