Rangers vs Man Utd kick-off delayed as Erik ten Hag dealt unwelcome pre-season blow | Football | Sport

Manchester United’s pre-season friendly clash with Rangers was delayed by 15 minutes.

The decision was made to push kick-off back due to many fans still being outside of Murrayfield Stadium when the match was set to begin.

The long queues outside of the ground prompted those at Rangers to take the decision to delay the match and allow those who have travelled – may that be from Manchester or from Glasgow – to get to their seats and enjoy the full 90 minutes.

Following the announcement, Rangers tweeted: “Kick-off has been delayed until 4:15pm to ensure safe entry of all fans into the stadium.”

United wrote: “Due to queues around the ground for entry, kick-off at Murrayfield has been delayed until 16:15 BST. Thank you to fans from both sides for your magnificent support.”

The short delay will have been an unwelcome blow to Erik ten Hag’s plans given that the match is the first time that the likes of Jadon Sancho and Leny Yoro will feature in pre-season. The ex-Ajax boss attempted to avoid any injury issues as a result of the delay by sending his squad back onto the pitch to stay warm, though it certainly will have impacted how the team typically operates.

United were beaten 1-0 by Rosenborg in their first pre-season despite the likes of Marcus Rashford, Mason Mount and Casemiro all featuring. The latter two stars will be hoping to help their side regain the winning thread in Scotland, though Rashford will not feature as he picked up a ‘small niggle’ whilst in Norway.

Speaking about his side ahead of the match, Ten Hag said: “Unfortunately Rashy can’t play, that would have been good but it’s the way it is, but it’s good to have Jadon back. Andre Onana, first minutes. We gave the chance to Radik and he did very well against Rosenborg but, of course, Andre needs the practice of the game.”

New signing Yoro will be making his debut for the club against Rangers too following his move from Lille, which was confirmed earlier this week.

Ten Hag heaped praise on the French teenager ahead of kick-off, saying: “Very exciting, for him, for us. We are so pleased we signed him. He is a huge talent to build him, you can see he’s a player, straight away on the pitch yesterday in a training drill, so comfortable, so we are really excited about him.”