Lisandro Martínez Scores First Goal at Old Trafford in 4-0 Win
Lisandro Martínez has scored in some of English football’s most hostile arenas – the Emirates, Anfield, Craven Cottage – but this was different. This was Old Trafford, under Champions League lights, with the anthem booming and a 4-0 win already underlined. This was his night.
On Manchester United’s return to Europe’s elite competition, they swept aside Azerbaijani side Sabah with a ruthless authority that has been badly missing in recent months. Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Šeško built the platform, each strike tightening United’s grip on the contest. Then Martínez arrived to put his stamp on it.
The Argentine, who had somehow managed to score all his previous United goals away from home, finally broke his Old Trafford duck in front of a crowd that has taken to his snarling, front-foot style. When his second-half effort found the net, it felt less like a fourth goal and more like a personal milestone finally falling into place.
It came on a night when United at last found a clean sheet – their first of the season in any competition. That detail will please the defender as much as his goal. Across the 90 minutes, United controlled the rhythm, the duels, and the mood. Sabah were never allowed to breathe.
Martínez set the tone from the opening whistle. He went into challenges as if every one might be the last, exactly as he later described it. United’s back line squeezed high, the midfield snapped into tackles, and Sabah’s attempts to play through the thirds were repeatedly broken on red shirts who looked, for once, physically and mentally sharper than their opponents.
“You have to go to every ball like the last one,” he said afterwards, summing up both his own performance and the collective edge United carried. “In every duel, we were so dominant.” It was not bravado. It was a fair reading of a one-sided contest.
If the game itself felt controlled, the emotions around it did not. The Champions League anthem at Old Trafford does something to players and supporters alike. The old place swelled with noise as the music hit, and Martínez admitted that harnessing that surge is not easy. On this evidence, he channelled it perfectly.
Speaking to MUTV, he allowed himself a rare glimpse of sentimentality. This was not just about a clean sheet or a fourth goal in a 4-0 win. This was about the setting and the company. His girlfriend watched from the stands as he scored in front of the Stretford End, and the 28-year-old called the moment “pure joy”, the kind of line that strips away the usual clichés and reveals what these nights actually mean to players.
“It’s an amazing feeling, scoring in this amazing and beautiful stadium with those people and also my girlfriend being there,” he said. “Tonight, honestly, I’m one of the happiest people in the world.” For a player who usually expresses himself through tackles and snarls, it was a striking admission.
The lighter side of Martínez emerged again after the final whistle. On CBS Sports, he traded jokes with Jamie Carragher and Micah Richards, catching both pundits off guard with sharp, playful replies. The same defender who had spent 90 minutes snarling into challenges now leaned back, relaxed, and enjoyed the moment. It was the swagger of a man who knew he had done his job and more.
Yet the celebration came with a clear limit. United’s European comeback has started with three points and a statement scoreline, but the calendar offers no time for lingering. Manchester City arrive at Old Trafford on Sunday, and the mood around the club can flip quickly if the derby goes wrong.
Martínez is acutely aware of that. Enjoy this, yes. Live in it, briefly. Then move on.
“We have to enjoy and, tomorrow, we have to think about the derby,” he said, already pivoting towards the Premier League. The language was simple, the message ruthless: the mindset that crushed Sabah has to carry into the weekend. No drop-off. No excuses. “We want to play with a big mentality and focus, and we want to try to get the three points.”
United have been accused often enough of drifting between games, of allowing big wins to dissolve into familiar inconsistency. Martínez’s words cut against that reputation. His performance did too.
On a night when Old Trafford rediscovered the sound of the Champions League and a defender finally scored in the stadium he now calls home, the challenge was laid out clearly: this cannot be a one-off. The derby will show whether this was a spark or the start of something far more serious.
