Conte served defeat on debut; praises Kante
Jose Mourinho’s first game as manager of Manchester United ended in a short trip and comfortable 2-0 victory over newly-promoted Championship side Wigan Athletic at their DW Stadium.
Goals early in the second half from Will Keane and Andreas Pereira secured victory for United who parted company with former manager Louis van Gaal after winning the FA Cup on their last competitive outing two months ago.
It was a weakened United lineup at the disposal of their new manager given that 14 players who represented their countries in the European Championships and Copa America this summer were unavailable and have yet to return to training.
Nevertheless, it is a sign of the strength in depth that Mourinho will have at his call this season that the starting line-up he selected still boasted summer signings Eric Bailly and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, bought for a total of nearly £60 million (71.7 million euros), and England leftback Luke Shaw, returning after 10 months out of action with a broken leg. The game, arranged at short notice to give Mournho extra competition prior to his team leaving for a tour of China on Tuesday, was predictably lowkey. But it still represented a winning start to his reign as United manager as the 5,500 United supporters in attendance welcomed him by chanting his name within the opening minute.
The victory will doubtless have pleased their manager even if the opening goal was a gift from veteran Wigan goalkeeper Jussi Jaaskelainen who made an appalling clearance directly to Juan Mata who squared for Keane to convert after 48 minutes.
Ten minutes later, United doubled their advantage with a goal that clearly owed much to the work put in by Mourinho in his first week on the training ground with his new charges. VIENNA: Chelsea coach Antonio Conte hailed the signing of N’Golo Kante after the France international joined from Premier League champions Leicester City on Saturday.
Kante became Chelsea’s second major signing this month after the Blues paid a reported £32 million (`283.28 crore). “I want to say Kante was a target and for this reason I’m very happy the club bought the player,” said Conte, after watching Chelsea lose 2-0 to Rapid Vienna in his first match in charge. “He’s a good player. He has good technique, fantastic stamina and I like this type of player. If you want to win then a team needs this type of player that works hard.
“All together we are working to improve the squad. We know we have to but we prefer to wait and go for our targets, rather than go with emotion and take the players who don’t adapt to our idea of football.” Conte fielded an experienced side with John Terry as captain against Rapid. The Italian also handed starts to several firstteam regulars including Diego Costa, Nemanja Matic, Willian and Branislav Ivanovic, but the English giants fell behind when Brazilian Joelinton scored after just eight minutes.