Reds finish runners-up at World Sevens

The Reds won four games out of four to set up a winner-takes-all meeting with Bayern, which our opponents edged 2-1 to become the first champions of the innovative seven-a-side cup in Portugal, contested between eight clubs from some of the best leagues in the world.

United midfielder Simi Awujo, who was later named the competition's Breakout Star following a fine run of performances, put us ahead in the first half of the 30-minute finale, before the recently crowned Frauen-Bundesliga victors turned things around after a short interval through goals from Momoko Tanikawa and Sarah Zadrazil.

Marc Skinner's side kicked off our campaign on Wednesday night with a 3-2 victory over AS Roma, ensuring we made a triumphant start in our pursuit of being one of the two sides that qualified for the semi-finals from Group B. Despite the Italian outfit coming from two goals down after Celin Bizet and Ella Toone had established us a healthy lead, Grace Clinton scored the Reds' decider.

United were clearly enjoying the opportunity to shine on a different stage at the end of a long season and by day two had completely embraced the one-by-one player introductions at the start of matches. Maya Le Tissier and co cartwheeled their way onto the field before beating Portuguese champs Benfica 3-1, with Bizet rifling home another opener and Awujo adding two more before a late consolation the other way.

That result ensured progression to the last four, setting up a straight shootout with Paris Saint-Germain for first place in the group during our final fixture of the phase on Thursday evening. United twice came from behind against the team that ended this term second in France, with Le Tissier and Jess Simpson both finding the net to take the clash to extra-time.

Competition rules meant the additional five-minute period was played as a five v five and, although it was next goal wins, neither team could quite find the all-important breakthrough, with Reds goalkeeper Kayla Rendell making a number of key stops to keep us alive. A sudden-death penalty shootout followed in which the first 13 kicks were all scored, before PSG's Grace Geyoro crashed her second effort off the crossbar to give United the summit-clinching success.

Finishing top meant playing the runners-up in Group A on Friday afternoon and that just so happened to be the only other English club in the competition - and our crosstown rivals - Manchester City, who had finished just behind Bayern, while ahead of Dutch entrants Ajax and reigning champions of Sweden, FC Rosengard.

The Reds limboed their way out for the derby clash before securing the bragging rights with a brilliant 2-0 win via goals either side of half-time. Melvine Malard got the first, taking Phallon Tullis-Joyce's long ball down before emphatically turning and powering a shot into the far top corner, before Gabby George added a second with a close-range curler that snuck inside the near post.

Those strikes set up a final with Bayern later in the evening, after the Germans had put five past PSG in their last-four clash earlier in the day. Awujo fired into the roof of the net to put us 1-0 up - the Canada international's third goal of the tournament, making her our top scorer - before Tanikawa levelled and Zadrazil scored late to earn the honour for the Germans.

Despite just missing out on the trophy the Reds do bring home $1 million for finishing in second place. That's to go with the many positives from the action on the pitch, not least the minutes for players across the squad and the opportunity to have mixed it with some of Europe's best teams ahead of our return to the Champions League next season.

“[My favourite part of the tournament] was just the players enjoying it,” says Skinner in a post-tournament interview that you can watch above. “Smiles, laugher. As a coach, it’s very rare that you can get authentic moments to bring people together.

“We have pressure, stress – stress, it pulls people apart. This was a moment to pull people together and you can see from our team there was nothing manufactured from the things they did. It was pure enjoyment.

“That’s something I’m very proud of and I want us to be in this tournament next year because I think it creates great team spirit and great team bond.

“It’s something I look forward to – hopefully the OGs, Bayern and Man United, heading off again in this tournament.”