Jadon Sancho had his Champions League breakthrough against Atletico Madrid

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Manchester United will face Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last 16 after UEFA had a re-draw on Monday.

The match-up is a fresh one for many Manchester United players, although Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane have plenty of experience facing Atletico in Madrid derbies from their time at Real.

The clash is also significant for Jadon Sancho, who has Champions League experience against Atletico Madrid too.

Sancho’s first Champions League goal

Jadon Sancho scored his first Champions League goal against Atletico Madrid back in 2019.

Just 18 at the time, Sancho struck in a 4-0 victory for Borussia Dortmund over Atletico to inflict Diego Simeone’s biggest ever defeat as manager.

Sancho rounded goalkeeper Jan Oblak after capitalising on a poor backpass. The goal saw Sancho become the first English player to score a Champions League goal for a non-British club since David Beckham for Real Madrid in 2005.

This was in Sancho’s first season at Dortmund, and it is one of six Champions League goals he has scored during his career to date, the most recent coming against Villarreal.

Sancho also has a goal against Barcelona to his name, and his strong record against Spanish clubs in the competition bodes well.

Sancho making progress

After an underwhelming start to his Manchester United career, Sancho showed signs of making progress under caretaker boss Michael Carrick, scoring twice.

He has been asked to play a different role under Ralf Rangnick, and has had one strong performance and one not so good.

United paid £73 million to sign Sancho and the flashes of quality he has shown, underlines why the investment could turn out to be a good one. If he ends up scoring a crucial goal or two to help United defeat Atletico Madrid next year, that will be a major turning point for him.

Having shown already what he can do against the Spanish side, Sancho will fancy his chances of a repeat performance.

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