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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Samuel Luckhurst

How Manchester United player Daniel James surprised Ole Gunnar Solskjaer vs AC Milan

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed Daniel James decided to take Manchester United's winning penalty against AC Milan.

United drew 2-2 with Milan in regulation time at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff and competition rules stipulated a winner had to be decided by a penalty shootout.

With the score deadlocked at 4-4, David de Gea repelled Daniel Maldini's effort to leave United with a chance to win the game 5-4. Although both teams were allowed a brief period to decide on their penalty takers, Solskjaer suggested he had not put Welshman James down as the fifth taker.

"Dan is ready to go, he's had a great pre-season," Solskjaer said of James. "He's fit straight into the group, both as a player on the pitch, in the team, and as a person and personality in the group, he's been a joy to work with.

"I didn't give him the last one, I think he wanted it, which is always a good sign!"

James came on as a second-half substitute and enjoyed a warm ovation back on home soil in front of a crowd of almost 70,000. United paid Swansea £15million rising to £18m for the Wales international and Solskjaer is pleased with the winger's development during pre-season.

"I think we at Man United want our players to [be exciting] and the other side of it is when you're a defender you don't really want him running at you with the ball," Solskjaer added. "So we have to catch up with him when he crosses that ball because we need to get into the box more often.

"Money? He cost what he cost. But I'm confident he's going to be good for us."

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