Wilson Loves United Chemistry

James Wilson hailed the relationship between Manchester United’s younger first-team players after goals from Jesse Lingard and Adnan Januzaj helped secure Saturday's 3-1 victory over Barcelona on Tour 2015, presented by Aon.

Following Wayne Rooney’s first-half opener, his fellow forward Wilson, 19, fed another young academy graduate, Tyler Blackett, down the left flank which allowed the defender to burst behind Barҫa’s defence and pull the ball back for 22-year-old Lingard to side-foot in for a two-goal cushion.

With the lead halved in the 90th minute by Rafinha, United responded immediately as Januzaj bamboozled Marc Barta and left the collapsed defender in his wake before driving the ball low past Jordi Masip.

The manner in which a young front four of Wilson, Januzaj, Lingard and Andreas Pereira stretched and punished the Barcelona backline in the second half left the Biddulph-born striker beaming in the aftermath of yet another rewarding pre-season triumph.

“We’ve all played together a lot in the youth and Reserves team and there is good chemistry between us,” Wilson explained. “We noticed one of their weaknesses was behind the full-backs and the centre-halves as they don’t have a great deal of pace and I think we utilised that well and scored a few goals.

“He (Lingard) came in from the back post to score. That’s something the wide players are always taught, to come in when the other wide player is crossing it. He got himself in a great position and we know he has the quality to finish off chances.

“The manager just told me to work hard and be a team player and I tried to show him what I had and to do the best job I could out there. It feels great to come away with a result. It was a great experience, to play against such a good team like Barcelona at such a great stadium.”

One aspect of the result that particularly pleased Wilson was the ruthless manner in which the Reds swiftly struck back to re-establish a two-goal lead after conceding Rafinha's goal late into the meeting.

The striker added: “They say one of the most important times are the few minutes after you’ve scored. We managed to capitalise on Barcelona's concentration maybe dropping a little after their goal and it was a great feeling for us to get another so soon.

“We take everything we can from the games. We’ve played a good team and come away with the result. You take confidence from any game you win but to beat a team like Barcelona means we’ve done a good job.”