Daniel James says Manchester United showed their fighting spirit by coming from behind to beat AC Milan on penalties in their final game of pre-season.
United led early on thanks to Marcus Rashford’s opener but first Suso, then an own goal from Victor Lindelof, turned the game on its head at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium.
Jesse Lingard pulled the scores level at 2-2 before James struck the winning penalty in the resulting shoot-out, meaning United finished their pre-season campaign unbeaten.
“You couldn’t write it,” the Welshman told MUTV about scoring the winner in Cardiff.
“Amazing. We’ve come from behind, today was a different test.
“They slowed it down, they played great football but it shows the spirit. We’ve come from behind for the draw and obviously to win on penalties, and to score the last one here in Cardiff is great.”
James was born and grew up in Yorkshire, qualifying for the Welsh national team through his father Kevan.
He won his first youth international call-up in 2013 and, having left Hull to join Swansea City’s youth set-up as a 16-year-old, is seen as one of Welsh football’s most exciting young talents . This was underlined this summer as he joined United for £15 million ($19m) as part of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s youth-oriented rebuild at Old Trafford.
He has since been joined by right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka, while Solskjaer has said the move for Leicester and England defender Harry Maguire is almost wrapped up .
With the English transfer deadline on August 8 looming large, United are set for a busy few days with speculation surrounding Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku.
Solskjaer wants Pogba to ignore interest from Real Madrid but seems happy for Lukaku to leave with reports suggesting Napoli have now joined Inter and Juventus in their pursuit of the Belgium forward.
United want to replace Lukaku with Juventus’ Paulo Dybala , but it remains to be seen whether the Argentine is keen on a move to Old Trafford.
Following the end of the transfer window, United can once again focus on football. They start their Premier League campaign with a home fixture against Chelsea, looking to put an early dent in Frank Lampard’s bid to bring the good times back to Stamford Bridge.
