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Manchester United hosted PSV Eindhoven’s reserves Jong PSV on Wednesday night in the Premier League International Cup.
Originally set to kick-off 45 minutes prior to the first team’s clash with Leicester City, the match was postponed due to traffic and ended up kicking off at the exact same time as Ruud van Nistelrooy took charge of his first match.
It was a good experience for Travis Binnion’s side as they came up against a strong Jong PSV outfit which contained a lot of senior experience, the starting XI having 89 appearances for PSV’s first team and hundreds more for other clubs.
The match got off to a bad start with United making it an even tougher test for themselves when Dermot Mee gifted Isaac Babadi a goal in the 14th minute, passing straight to the PSV midfielder.
United almost immediately responded with a long ball down the left wing for Ethan Williams to battle for which saw him shrug off his marker before cutting back to Tommy Rowe but the United player-coach’s shot was deflected into the ground and looped over the bar.
Jack Moorhouse almost played himself into danger at the edge United’s box but a lucky bounce saw him regain possession before he skipped past three challenges and slipped through Chido Obi-Martin. But the weekend’s hat-trick hero scuffed his shot off the defender and wide.
PSV almost doubled their lead just before the break when they crossed low towards the back post for what looked like a simple tap in, but Mee made up for his earlier mistake by scrambling across goal to make a huge save, keeping it 0-1 at the half.
Continuing to monitor his minutes after not playing all summer, Obi-Martin exited at the break and was replaced by the in-form Gabriele Biancheri.
PSV continued the to control the proceedings in the second half but were limited to very few clear cut chances, coming closest just before the hour mark when Couhaib Driouech’s effort was cleared off the line by Tyler Fredricson.
United improved late on after the introduction of Zach Baumann. He linked well with Ethan Williams on the right side, who put Baumann through with a clever pass. Baumann spun his defender inside the box but it was good defending again from PSV to block his attempt on goal.
Into the 89th minute of the match, Williams found Biancheri in the box. The striker held up the ball before feeling a touch to take him down and earn United a penalty.
Biancheri stepped up to smash the ball into the roof of the net for his 15th goal of the season to earn United a point.
The draw sees United in fourth place out of eight in their group, with two points from two matches after a previous draw with Hertha Berlin.
United: Mee, Ogunneye, Kingdon, Fredricson, Rowe (Kamason 72), McAllister (Scanlon 68), Devaney, Williams, Ennis (Sharpe 68), Moorhouse (Baumann 57), Obi-Martin (Biancheri 46)
Unused subs: Graczyk, Missin