Manchester United beat Leeds on penalties after pre-season draw at sold out Croke Park

Noussair Mazraoui scored the winning spot kick allowing Man Utd fans to serenad their Leeds counterparts: "Boyle Sports Cup winners, you'll never sing that."

CHAMPIONS: Manchester United's players celebrate with the trophy after a pre season match at Croke Park, Dublin. Pic: Niall Carson/PA Wire.

Manchester United 1 Leeds United 1 (Manchester United win 5-4 on penalties)

THE friendly that wasn't supposed to be friendly turned out to be a rather amicable affair as history weighed heavily on the honoured English guests at the spiritual home of Irish sport.

For Manchester United at least, it ended with a penalty shoot-out which was rather more successful than their previous one.

Two sides with the dubious honour of losing to Wrexham in pre-season attracted a full-house to Croke Park as the beautiful returned to the nation's grandest stage for the first time in 17 years in an encounter laced with symbolism given events here more than a century ago, one of British football's most bitter rivalries crossing the Irish Sea to great fanfare.

Despite the lack of intensity that accompanies the meeting of these cross-Pennine rivalry when Premier League points are on the line, there was just about enough meaningful action to ensure the 80,000 gathered in north Dublin for the first ever club football fixture on the hallowed turf headed home relatively satisfied with what was if nothing else a public relations success.

Results aren't supposed to matter at this stage of the build-up to a new campaign which approaches with indecent haste given this summer's bloated World Cup finals remains fresh in the memory.

There might be slightly less truth in that statement when these two northern powerhouses collide, wherever and whatever the the context, although the almost obligatory plethora of substitutions - Leeds made 10 changes at the interval - had a predictably detrimental effect on the flow of the contest thankfully bereft of VAR or hydration breaks.

SPOT OF BOTHER: A pitch invader runs to Bruno Fernandes after he missed in the shootout. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Joshua Zirkzee put Michael Carrick's side ahead after Bryan Mbeumo, the Cameroon forward who also struck the bar before half-time and looks to have clearly benefited from a World Cup free summer, left Jaka Bijol on his backside in a flowing 80-yard counter attack to provide an inviting low centre for the Dutch forward to sweep home his first goal this year from a dozen yards just after the quarter-hour mark.

Leeds were level 15 minutes before the break, Dan James dispossessing Tyler Fletcher outside the Manchester United area to square for Brenden Aaronson to beat Senne Lammens with a confident close-range finish.

Carrick made the majority of his changes on the hour as many of his Old Trafford big guns, including Bruno Fernandes and the recently arrived Youri Tielemans, entered the fray in a bid to inject some much-needed urgency into a supposed grudge match which was becoming friendlier by the minute.

Fernandes was denied by an offside flag after embarrassing Alex Cairns at the back-up Leeds keeper's near post before the Portuguese sent a curling 20-yard effort against the bar as the United clad in red looked more likely to claim the game's decisive third goal.

It failed to arrive, and because it appears to be a criminal offence to have a draw in pre-season these days, penalties ensued following a mildly farcical late pitch invasion by several youthful fans, who were rewarded for their unwanted incursion by players happily posing with them for selfies.

Dermot Mee made the most of his brief taste of the limelight as the Northern Ireland Under-21 international saved from Harry Wilson before James Justin's effort came back off the bar.

Noussair Mazraoui won it to help ease the memory of last season's League Cup shootout exit to Grimsby as, following the latest addition to the Old Trafford trophy cabinet, fans serenaded their Leeds counterparts: "Boyle Sports Cup winners, you'll never sing that."

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): Lammens (Mee 61); Diogo Dalot (Mazraoui 61), Yoro, Heaven (Armer 46), Amass (Shaw 61); Andrey Santos (Collyer 46), T Fletcher (Tielemans 61); Diallo (J Fletcher 61), Zirkzee (Cunha 61), Dorgu (Thompson 46); Mbeumo (Fernandes 61).

Leeds United (3-4-2-1): Trafford (Cairns 46); Bornauw, Bijol (Rodon 46), Muharemovic (Cresswell 46); Bogle (Gnonto 46), Longstaff (Stach 46), Tanaka (Ampadu 46), Chadwick (Justin 46); James (Okafor 46), Aaronson (Wilson 46); Nmecha (Calvert-Levin 46).

Referee: Neil Doyle.