📅 August 15, 2026
Man United 2-4 AC Milan: Amorim Gets the Last Laugh in Wroclaw
Well, that’s one way to end pre-season. Manchester United went to Wroclaw for a farewell friendly against AC Milan and came away beaten 4-2, undone by two second-half collapses and, for the first time since 5 January, a face on the opposite touchline we all know too well. Ruben Amorim got his reunion, and he got it his way.
Maguire has us dreaming, then it all comes apart
For about ten minutes this looked like exactly the send-off we wanted. Harry Maguire headed us in front inside two minutes, meeting a Bruno Fernandes corner to send the away end into a state that had nothing to do with a friendly. It didn’t last. Milan drew level through Samuel Chukwueze after a mix-up at the back, and when Fernandes had the chance to restore the lead from the penalty spot before half-time, his effort was well saved. One-one at the break, and the warning signs were already there.
They got louder after it. Patrick Dorgu put us back in front early in the second half, only for Milan to hit back twice in the space of six minutes: Alphajo CissĂ© bundling home a rebound, then Gonçalo Ramos heading in to put Amorim’s side ahead for the first time. Ruben Loftus-Cheek added a fourth soon after, and from there it was a matter of seeing out the clock on our last game before the Premier League starts for real. Not the note anyone wanted to leave Poland on. We covered what to expect from both line-ups earlier in the week, and Michael Carrick’s XI matched it closely: Lammens in goal, Mazraoui, Maguire, Heaven and Shaw across the back, Fernandes and Cunha up top with Dorgu and Amad either side, and, most interestingly, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans both named from the start in midfield.
Santos and Tielemans, finally, together
That last point has been the story of our week and it’s worth dwelling on. Three matches running, Andrey Santos and Youri Tielemans had not shared the pitch: Tielemans came on for Santos against PSG, then Santos was withdrawn at half-time against Leeds at Croke Park with Tielemans introduced after the hour. Two big-money midfield signings, and Carrick hadn’t been able to field them together once.
He did in Wroclaw. Both started, both stayed on through Maguire’s opener, the Chukwueze equaliser and the missed penalty, and both were still out there as Milan started to turn the game. Santos was withdrawn as part of a wave of changes just past the hour mark; Tielemans played on. It’s a small thing to take from a heavy defeat, but after a week of the same question being asked on repeat, we finally have an answer: yes, they can play together, for a little over an hour at least, before the manager needed fresh legs.
Rashford is back
The other headline arrived just past the hour too. Marcus Rashford, frozen out under Amorim and only just back from his season at Barcelona, came off the bench for his first United minutes since December 2024. Twenty months is a long time to wait, and there’s an obvious symbolism in it happening against the manager who sent him out the door in the first place. Carrick had talked him up in the build-up to this one, telling us this week:
He’s our player. He’s come back great. He’s just like any other player.
There was no fairytale goal or moment to make the defeat feel worthwhile, but that was never really the point of this one. Getting him minutes, in a fixture that meant something without meaning everything, is exactly what a last pre-season friendly is for.
Amorim’s night
We wrote at length about the strange business of facing our old manager and there’s not much to add now except that Amorim will have enjoyed this one enormously. It was his first game against United since being sacked the day after that draw at Leeds, and his side had gone the entire summer without a win before Wroclaw: draws with Celtic and Inter, a 3-0 hammering by Chelsea. Beating us to end that run, with goals from four different players and a keeper who barely had to make a save in the closing stages, will do plenty for the mood in Milan. For us, it’s a reminder that his 38.1% win rate and 1.23 points per game here were never the full story of what he could do with better players and a settled system around him.
Where that leaves us
Pre-season finishes at two wins, two draws and two defeats: beaten by Wrexham, wins over Rosenborg and Atletico Madrid, a draw with PSG, a shootout win over Leeds after a 1-1 draw, and now this. There’s no real value in reading too much into a 4-2 friendly scoreline while first-teamers rotate in and out, but conceding four goals to a Milan side that hadn’t won all summer is not what Carrick will have wanted three weeks after we let in 50 across the league last season. Ugarte remains out with his ACL injury, Mount is a doubt, and Sesko, De Ligt and Darlow are all still working their way back. There’s work still to do before Hull.
Full fixtures for the season ahead are on our schedule page. Next up: Hull City away, MKM Stadium, Saturday 22 August, 12:30 kick-off.