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Football

19th Sep 2018

Summer signing debuts as Jose Mourinho names team for Champions League group opener

We've got team news

Darragh Murphy

Diogo Dalot starts for Manchester United.

The team news is in for United’s first Champions League game of the season.

We already knew that right-back Antonio Valencia would be left out amid concerns over how well his injury-prone knees would hold up on Young Boys’ artificial pitch and summer signing Diogo Dalot makes his first appearance of the season in the club captain’s absence.

But Mourinho hasn’t made too many changes ahead of his side’s Champions League group opener against the Swiss champions.

Marcus Rashford, who is suspended from Premier League duty after his red card against Burnley two weeks ago, starts alongside Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial.

Full-back Luke Shaw returns after being left out of United’s victory over Watford due to the head injury he picked up for England last week while Fred also makes his comeback.

“I think we are improving,” Mourinho said after securing back-to-back Premier League victories. “We found a certain balance in the team, especially in the competitive attitude, we are creating lots of chances, changing our profile of play, the way we attack opponents, and we find a way to protect ourselves in some specific situations and we manage to get six points after two defeats which is important for us.

“I’m happy but you know I was happy after the Tottenham defeat, not with the result but with many things I saw and we felt that match was okay, was the beginning of our improvement. And we managed that in two difficult matches away and let’s see in our third match if we can win all of them.”