Twitter was flooded with the news of a super-secret 11-a-side friendly game between Manchester United players at Old Trafford.
Left-back Luke Shaw revealed, in a detailed match report, what went down at Old Trafford over the weekend.
"I’m happy to set the record straight: it did end 4-4 and I did score twice," Shaw wrote on the official Man Utd website, adding that Bruno Fernandes and Daniel James were the other two scorers.
On the other side, both Marcus Rashford and Odion Ighalo bagged themselves a brace.
For Shaw, it was a step forward form the games the squad has been having at the training ground ever since the clubs were allowed to return to training after a three-month gap due to the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Speaking about his brace in the report, Shaw wrote: "To be fair, my first goal was decent. It was from a great cross by Bruno and my volley went straight in. I was happy with it. My other one was just getting forward, Juan [Mata] played it to me on the edge of the box, I took a touch and shot in. It was quite an open game, as you can probably gather, with a lot of space, since it was the first game back."
It was the team's first chance to get used to a 'silent' Old Trafford, which was different, as described by the Englishman.
"We all felt like it made the pitch seem bigger because the stands are totally empty. Sometimes during games the fans push you on when you’re tired, but now we’ve got to get to grips without that support. It was a really valuable exercise to be able to play at Old Trafford without that," wrote Shaw.
"We were creating our own noise around the stadium and that’s something we’ve got to make sure we do.
"The important thing is that it’s another step forward. It’s getting more and more exciting now and we just want to get playing games."
Premier League is set to return on June 17, with Manchester United going head-to-head with Tottenham Hotspur.
"We’ve got a couple of in-house games at the training ground scheduled over the next few days, which will help us step things up even further before the big game next week against Spurs," Shaw wrote.
"It's a massive fixture and I think everyone on both sides has got full-strength squads now, so it should be a really good game. It’s definitely one we’re all looking forward to.
"In training, we’re looking really sharp, really fit and ready to go. We’re looking forward to it. We just need to pick up where we left off, doing the things we were doing before the break."
Man United currently sit at the fifth spot in the Premier League table, three points below Chelsea. Their clash against Tottenham is an important fixture, as they look forward to make it to the top four spot in order to qualify for the Champions League, which is what they 'really want'.
Before the league's suspension, Man United quickly rose through the ranks as they went 11 games unbeaten under manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Two important signings, Fernandes from Sporting and Ighalo from China's Shanghai Shenua, helped the Red Devils in bringing back their form.
While Rashford and World Cup winner Paul Pogba were earlier absent due to severe injuries, they are set to return for the club. That means, United will prove to be a massive threat for the opposition defence with the likes of Rashford, Fernandes, Anthony Martial, James, Mason Greenwood and Pogba. Brazilian midfielder Fred has also got his quality form back with good control in the midfield.
"We’ve got our full squad back now, so hopefully we can push on even more with the quality that’s going to be added from those returning players," Shaw wrote.
"It’s a big squad now and even more difficult for the manager to make decisions, but I’ve said, many a time, that at a club like Manchester United you need those decisions to make.
"He needs players to be making it hard for him to pick a team because it’s the biggest club in the world and we need massive competition around the place to push everyone towards where United should be."
