Manchester United Women began their pre-season preparations with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa at Carrington.
Youthful side
The match was missing some of United’s Euro 2025 stars and it was arranged before the contest that the game would consist of three 20 minute periods.
The Red Devils gave plenty of valuable minutes to academy youngsters such as Jessica Anderson, Keira Barry, Scarlett Hill, Sienna Wareing and Tamira Livingston.
Villa started well and almost went ahead before Evie Rabjohn made an impressive block to keep the scores level.
American keeper Phallon Tullis-Joyce had a fantastic season last year and was called quickly into action to make a smart stop from Ebony Salmon.
Breakthrough
In spite of the sea of young faces around her, it was United’s veteran attacker Leah Galton who opened the scoring.
Simi Awujo, who impressed so much in the World Sevens tournament, won the ball high up the pitch and played a fantastic through ball to Galton who dinked over the onrushing Villa keeper.
Both sides made significant changes throughout and the Villans’ Rachel Day went the closest for her side but her effort flashed wide of the post.
Result secured
United finally made the game safe though when two more youngsters combined effectively.
Emma Watson played in a wonderful free kick that was finished by defender Gabby George, who found the top corner in expert style.
The Red Devils saw out the win and made sure they started off their pre-season in the best possible way with a win and a clean sheet.
A solid start to pre-season 💪💯
The Reds beat Aston Villa at Carrington this afternoon, thanks to quality goals from Leah and Gabby 👏 pic.twitter.com/eIZaxPfibB
— Manchester United Women (@ManUtdWomen) August 3, 2025
United will continue their pre-season preparations with a short trip to the Etihad Campus to play Manchester City on Saturday.
They will then face ties against Real Betis and Liverpool before they take on PSV Eindhoven in the second round of Champions League qualification at the end of the month.
Feature image Alex Livesey via Getty Images
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Alex Browne
Alex is a huge Manchester United fan, inspired by greats of his homeland such as George Best, Harry Gregg and Norman Whiteside. Proud owner of such niche shirts such as Kleberson, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Gary Neville. Grew up pretending to be Ruud van Nistelrooy and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the back garden, with little success.
