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Man Utd vs Leeds make history at sold-out Croke Park

Manchester United and Leeds face off in a historic pre-season friendly at Croke Park on Wednesday, the first association football match between two English clubs at the 82,300-capacity Dublin stadium.

MW
·12 Aug·2 min read
Man Utd v Leeds - a historic pre-season encounter at Croke Park
Man Utd v Leeds - a historic pre-season encounter at Croke ParkPhotograph: Wikimedia Commons

Leeds won the bragging rights in April when they beat United 2-1 at Old Trafford to help boost their Premier League survival.

Croke Park will host its first association football match between two English teams when Manchester United face Leeds in a pre-season game on Wednesday. The 82,300-capacity arena in north Dublin is sold out as it hosts two English clubs for the first time. Association football has not been played at the stadium since 2009.

The Roses rivals will be meeting for the fourth time in eight summers when they face each other in Dublin on Wednesday (19:30 BST kick-off, live on ITV). However, United have the most wins from their 115 meetings with 50. Leeds are unbeaten against the Red Devils in their last three meetings in all competitions, could bag back-to-back wins over Michael Carrick's men after their memorable 2-1 victory back in April, gave them their first away win at Old Trafford since 1981.

Manuel Ugarte is out after undergoing surgery on an ACL injury, with Matthijs de Ligt, Benjamin Sesko and Kobbie Mainoo also sidelined. Gabriel Gudmundsson is the only player missing for Leeds, although Lucas Perri and Ilia Gruev are nursing injuries. James Trafford could be in line for his debut after completing his club-record £40million switch from Manchester City. He signed on August 6, but was not involved in Leeds' 2-0 win over RB Leipzig two days later.

A 1-0 defeat to Wrexham marked a disappointing start to United's summer, but they bounced back by thrashing Rosenborg 5-0. This was followed by a 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid and then the 1-1 draw with European champions PSG. Daniel Farke's side go into this derby, hoping to make it four wins on the bounce in pre-season, after defeating RB Leipzig in a two-hour-long contest last Saturday.

Then, in 2010, when Aviva Stadium was opened on the Lansdowne Road site, the policy of allowing use of Croke Park for other games on a case-by-case basis was made permanent.

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