Manchester United have been lightly criticised for letting Alvaro Carreras Fernandez go but it has largely gone under the radar. He proved for Benfica against FC Barcelona that he is the perfect left-wing-back for Ruben Amorim in Tuesday’s ridiculous 5-4 Champions League classic; for 45 minutes anyway.
The Red Devils are not averse to a transfer market blunder – it is actually something of a specialty. Selling adventurous attacking left-back Carreras is another amateur decision made by the Man United transfer team, especially when you consider they only received £5million.
They were switched on enough to include a buy-back clause but are probably too stubborn to exercise it six months after letting him leave on the cheap. Reports suggest the release clause is either £16m or £25m.
Erik ten Hag pushed Carreras out on loan to Granada in 2023 because he wanted Premier League experience. The player he brought in was Tottenham’s Sergio Reguilon, whose loan was terminated months later. United did not owe Carreras anything when they made that decision but it cannot have sat well with the young Spaniard, who was clearly good enough to be Luke Shaw’s back-up with Tyrell Malacia out for the season.
He played a decent amount but not regularly enough for Granada and switched loan clubs in January 2024, joining Benfica for the second half of the season with a buy option included in the deal. Benfica obviously exercised that option and what a decision that was, in contrast to another example of Man United acting like transfer novices.
Carreras and Benfica – managed by ex-Wolves boss Bruno Lage – are loving life together and we suspect the Red Devils might have registered an interest by now if the 21-year-old was not a player they sold months ago, but some shiny new toy valued at £40m.
The young Spaniard’s latest impressive performance came against Barcelona on an absolutely mental Tuesday night in Lisbon. His assignment for the night was some kid called Lamine Yamal but Carreras was more focused on attacking in the first half, dealing with the 17-year-old impeccably when needed.
Benfica changed their mentality after the break but his start was absolutely electric, providing an assist after two minutes for Vangelis Pavlidis, who would go on to score a 30-minute hat-trick.
The fast start set the tone for what would go on to be one of the best, most ridiculous games you will see all season.
Barcelona No. 9 Robert Lewandowski equalised from the penalty spot after Carreras’ fellow full-back, Tomas Araujo, fouled Carreras’ opposite left-back Alejandro Balde in the box. They weren’t level for long.
Pavlidis’ second came after a catastrophic error from Barcelona goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who crunched Balde when trying to play sweeper ‘keeper. If he committed that assault on an opposition player, he would have been sent off. Not because he was last man, but because it bordered on GBH.
The Greek striker was there to score into an empty net and Szczesny’s evening somehow got even worse when he gave away a penalty for a foul on Kerem Akturkoglu. What a shambles as Pavlidis converted from the spot to complete his hat-trick and give the La Liga giants a mountain to climb.
They went for it though and were given a helping hand by Benfica goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin, whose wayward kick bizarrely bounced off Raphinha’s head and into the back of the net.
Minutes later, a different Barca player decided to put their name in the hat for d**k of the day. Ronald Araujo beat Szczesny and Pavlidis to a front-post cross to restore the hosts’ two-goal advantage, which would soon disappear.
On an evening full of silly mistakes, Carreras decided to get in on the act as well, conceding a penalty for a foul on Yamal, which we found to be incredibly, incredibly harsh. Lewandowski didn’t care as he scored his second spot-kick to make it 4-3.
Speaking of Man United, a man they are relying on to be sold by Barca so they can afford to sign Marcus Rashford scored the eighth goal of the game. Eric Garcia’s close-range header levelled things up again and on the counter deep into injury time, Raphinha scored his second to win the match for the Catalan giants in the most dramatic way imaginable. Carreras getting nutmegged by the match-winning shot was far from ideal.
But his first half performance was world class, it should not have been a penalty and we are still impressed. The young Spaniard would be perfect in Ruben Amorim’s system, especially for the reported buy-back clause. Forget Patrick Dorgus and Nuno Mendes, bring the boy back… if he even wants to return to the leaky graveyard that is Old Trafford.
Carreras registered an assist, created two big chances and defended very well against one of the best attackers in the world before an already chaotic match became completely psychotic and got away from him and his colleagues.
Here’s hoping Amorim did not break his own television watching that first-half performance from Carreras. On second thoughts, it probably works better for us if he didn’t see what happened after the break…
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