Man Utd’s tour misfortune

Manchester United’s tour of China took another turn for the worse as their International Champions Cup clash with Manchester City was called off due to concerns over the state of the pitch in Beijing.

Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola’s sides were due to play at the Bird’s Nest Stadium at 12.30pm, but the pitch was deemed unplayable after heavy rain overnight.

It was the latest stroke of bad luck for United. From their heavy defeat to Borussia Dortmund to the abandoned Manchester derby, we look at what’s gone wrong…

Dortmund defeat

United’s tour started with a 4-1 thrashing by Borussia Dortmund in Shanghai on Friday. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembele and Gonzalo Castro were on target for the Bundesliga outfit, with United’s consolation goal coming from their new signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

The scoreline was far from ideal for their first major friendly under Mourinho, but the new manager put it down to differences in preparation. Dortmund had already played four summer friendlies, while United’s only match action had come with a 2-0 win over Wigan Athletic.

“I know that in pre-season the team that is in the advanced stage of preparation looks far better than the other team,” he said. “If we did not know, I think after 10 minutes we know that one team started training 10 days ago and played one match and the other team started one month ago and already played four matches.”

Emergency landing

United chartered two flights from Shanghai to Beijing for the …

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