19th July 2023 Manchester United 1 Olympique Lyonnais 0
I must be off my head ! When this friendly match was announced and being held at Murrayfield I bought a ticket. Ticket including booking fees cost £49.10, including booking fees, for a pre-season friendly. I just hoped both sides field decent strength teams. I left home at 12.40 to walk to Murrayfield for the 14.00 kickoff. I am glad I left early as there were queues at the turnstiles when I arrived. Tickets for the match could only be obtained through Ticketmaster and were electronic. For some reason electronic tickets could be downloaded to the wallet in Android phones but not to IPhones. iPhone users had to download the Ticketmaster app to access tickets to scan at the turnstile. On arrival at Murrayfield I and many other users were unable to access tickets through the app. I was sent to the ticket office and after a wait was seen and an assistant set me up to access the app after photoing a scan onto my phone. It was then back into the turnstile queues for my ticket to be scanned. Queues by this time were enormous and I finally got into the ground at 14.45. Another gripe is not that match programme was available. Surely with a huge number of kids wanting to see Manchester United a programme would have provided great. Only souvenir available was touts selling joint Manchester Utd/Lyon scarfs for £10 each. I was in section E1 and it turned that that my ticket was in row X, which was almost at the very top of the stadium. I felt like Edmund Hillary climbing Everest when I finally climbed up to my seat.
When it came to the team line-ups I admit I knew nothing about Lyonnais. I had seen them once before in 1996 when the played against Hearts in a testimonial for Neil Berry. Lyonnais won 3-1 but the only think that sticks in my mind is that Hearts wore a Hearts tartan top. I bought one and kept it for years. The only name I recognised in the Lyonnais was Alexander Lacazette who was a striker for Arsenal for a number of years. I was however really disappointed in the United side. United are heading out to the States on a tour next week and included in the squad replacers like Casemiro, Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Luke Shaw, Christian Eriksen, Scott McTominay, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony Martial .None of these players featured in the squad at Murrayfield and to me it appeared that Utd were treating the crowd with contempt by not including players of that calibre in their line-up. I accept new signing Mason Mount was in the line-up along with Jason Sancho and Antony but after paying almost £50 for a ticket I would have expected to see and full side rather than a team packed with youngsters who had no real first team experience.
United started well and Mount missed an early chance after a cutback from Sancho. Lyonnais keeper Anthony Lopes did well to stop efforts from Antony and Diallo in the first fifteen minutes before the pace of the game slowed. Lyonnaise did not have a shot at goal in the full game but did come close when just before halftime when Jeffinho hit the ball just past the post with an overhead kick.United goalkeeper Matej Kovar could have spent the first half in a deckchair wearing sunglasses.
Things went from the sublime to the ridiculous at halftime with Utd. manager Erik ten Hag making ten changes. The changes included the introduction of 35 year-old centre back Jonny Evans who rejoined United following the expiry of his contract with Leicester. United took the lea three minutes into the second half when a cross from Daniel Gore from the right was volleyed home from about ten yards by Donny van de Beek. Isak Hansen-Aaroen almost added second but his shot was well saved by Lyonnais substitute keeper Remy Riou. The game then petered out and in a way it was relief when referee John Beaton blew the final whistle as neither side looked interested in performing well for the 48,484 crowd.
After the final whistle I decided to walk home and had further frustration when the police had closed the exit from the railway path to Haymarket. I had to head back to the main road and walk past Donaldsons school before being told I could not walk past Haymarket Station as access was only for train passengers. I finally got onto Dalry Road and was home around 16.15 after what was a very disappointing day out.
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