Marc Skinner praises 10-player Man Utd spirit after win over Atletico Madrid

Marc Skinner hailed the “Manchester United spirit” of his side after they overcame a first-half red card for defender Dominique Janssen to battle to a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid and maintain their perfect start to the new Women’s Champions League campaign.

Sweden forward Fridolina Rolfo fired in a close-range volley, her first goal since a summer move from Barcelona, to give the English side a 24th-minute lead.

Netherlands centre-back Janssen was then shown a red card before the break following a VAR review into her sliding challenge on Gio Garbelini, who was taken off on a stretcher.

Atletico also finished the match with 10 players after defender Alexia Fernandez collected a second yellow card with 15 minutes left.

It was a second straight European win for Skinner’s side, who had beaten Valerenga in their opening Champions League match and are also undefeated in six Women’s Super League matches so far.

“There are games where you play beautiful football and there are games where you fight and you show the other side of the game and the quality that you have as a team,” Skinner said in an interview on the Manchester United website.

“Qualities are easy to measure when you are scoring lots of goals, but to fight when everything’s against you, and to do that with the quality and spirit that this team has shown tonight, just shows what we are building. I am really incredibly proud of them.”

Skinner added: “I was always brought up on watching Manchester United in Europe on TV, watching the historic moments, the tight games where they just turn it on and they have the ability to win those games.

“Looking at our team, I think we have that same spirit – we have a Manchester United spirit through and through.”

Janssen had initially been shown a yellow card after clattering into Garbelini just outside the box on the right before Greek referee Eleni Antoniou reviewed the incident on the pitchside monitor and decided her sliding challenge had merited a red card.

“I don’t think it’s a scissoring action, which is what I was told. It is a natural action for Dom to try and win the ball,” Skinner said.

“She has kept her foot down to block the ball and accidentally caught her with a knee that has to balance her out.

“She didn’t mean that, and that’s an accident, so we are going on severity of the injury, not the severity of actually the tackle.”