Michael Carrick praised Kobbie Mainoo’s impressive performance and paid tribute to a stubborn Sabah side as Manchester United marked their return to the Champions League with a 4-0 win at Old Trafford on Thursday night.
Matheus Cunha opened the scoring in the 27th minute, touching in Patrick Dorgu’s cross delicately at the back post, before Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Sesko both struck in the closing stages of the first half to put the tie beyond the Azerbaijani side.
Lisandro Martinez added a fourth in the second period after an impressive showing from substitute Joshua Zirkzee.
Sabah, making their Champions League proper debut, caused United some discomfort in the early stages and Joy-Lance Mickels spurned a genuine opportunity to equalise after Cunha’s opener, but the gulf in quality told emphatically as the evening wore on.
Carrick was fair in his assessment when speaking post-match, acknowledging that the scoreline flattered United’s evening.
“It’s nice to have a clean sheet! And obviously win the game,” he said.
“There was a lot. I thought some of our attacking play was fantastic, some of the football we played was really good, dangerous on transition. Defended for the most part really well.
“I have to give them a lot of credit, really tough team to play against. They play little connections and make you really work to get the ball back.
The result looks comfortable, it wasn’t always like that. But I thought we just did a lot of good things tonight which gave us a good result.”
Carrick salutes Mainoo
The performance that drew most attention came from Kobbie Mainoo, who completed 81 passes across his 64 minutes on the pitch,the most by an Englishman in a Champions League match for United since Carrick himself made 89 against Olympiakos in February 2014.
“He’s a fantastic player, Kobbie, I think it’s pretty obvious to see,” Carrick said. “The way he’s performing, playing that little bit deeper, really, and connecting the attacks, starting the attacks.
“Having a massive influence on our games. He’s a real joy to have – he wants to learn, he wants to listen – and he expresses himself on the pitch. It’s great to see.”
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