The opening round of the World Cup group stage is over, and Manchester United had eight players in action.
This summer’s World Cup is now in full swing after one round of group fixtures in the books.
Manchester United will have had a keen eye on proceedings across several groups, with eight Red Devils playing in round one.
Here are each of the players rated, while excluding those who didn’t play a single minute.
Amad – 9/10
It didn’t look likely to be a good start to the World Cup for Amad, but with Ecuador and Ivory Coast cancelling each other out, he stepped up.
Amad came off the bench to score the winner for Ivory Coast, which should effectively have been enough to send them through.
After a poor season for United, Amad is in sensational form for his country, and it is exciting to see how he fares in the remainder of the tournament.
Round one couldn’t have gone better.
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Marcus Rashford – 8/10
Like Amad, Marcus Rashford got his appearance off the bench for England, and he also had a huge impact.
Rashford scored England’s fourth in a 4-2 win over Croatia, tying Sir Bobby Charlton’s World Cup scoring record, highlighting how key he is for England.
He will have been disappointed not to start, but this display should push him ahead of Anthony Gordon in the pecking order.
Bruno Fernandes – 5/10
Expectations for Bruno Fernandes pre-tournament were incredibly high, and like the entire Portugal team, he failed to fulfill these hopes.
Fernandes and Portugal struggled to a 1-1 draw with DR Congo, with Fernandes’ performance almost stifled by Portugal carrying Cristiano Ronaldo.
By his own standards, this was poor from Fernandes, and we expect better.
Casemiro – 3/10
In a fiercely competitive game against Morocco, Casemiro struggled badly for Brazil in midfield, being shown levels by Ayyoub Bouaddi.
Afterwards, Casemiro was ripped into by Brazilian ex-players and Carlo Ancelotti hooking him off at half-time hardly helped his case.
It was the performance that United fans saw in 2024 from Casemiro and he simply needs to do better if he wants to succeed.
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Matheus Cunha – 7/10
It wasn’t the start to the tournament that Matheus Cunha will have wanted as he started on the bench for Brazil behind Igor Thiago.
But with plan A failing, Ancelotti turned to Cunha and he was a vast improvement for Brazil, creating and making things happen.
He will want to start against Haiti and make that position his own.
Noussair Mazraoui – 8/10
Morocco didn’t disappoint in their opening game, being completely equal to Brazil in every way, and maybe even better.
Mazraoui was brilliant for Morocco at left-back, defensively and offensively as he drove into midfield on numerous occasions past a pretty helpless Casemiro.
He looked a completely different player to how he has at United. Long may Mazraoui’s excellence continue.
Manuel Ugarte – 4/10
Uruguay were really poor against Saudi Arabia and Manuel Ugarte’s performance was nothing to rave about.
Ugarte struggled on the ball but more worryingly he looked miles off it defensively, failing to win duels or tackles as he usually does.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side look like possible dark horses to be grouped based on them looking really poor and Ugarte was part of that.
Lisandro Martinez – 7/10
As the greatest of all time Lionel Messi claimed all the headlines, Lisandro Martinez quietly had a strong game for Argentina in the 3-0 win over Algeria.
He started at centre-back and was rock solid with and without the ball.
On his day, Martinez can be world class and he has been exactly this during the World Cup so far.
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