Romelu Lukaku puts his howler behind him to show character as Manchester United's new £75m striker refuses to shirk and nets on debut after big miss

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Eagerness was engulfing Romelu Lukaku. Two big moments during a final Manchester United were mere bystanders in came and went on his watch.  

The first, after 35 minutes of being starved of any service, Lukaku pounced as Ander Herrera picked the pocket of Toni Kroos and United were through on goal.

Trouble is, he was five yards offside, stealing the ball from an enraged Herrera, who happened to be through on goal in search of an equaliser.

Manchester United striker Romelu Lukaku made amends having missed a glorious chance

Lukaku wrestles for the ball with Casemiro for company during a challenging night in Skopje

The £90m striker did not impose himself on proceedings until his close range strike

The former Chelsea striker missed a glaring opportunity to halve the arrears before he did so

The second, more galling from a striker's perspective, came after Real Madrid had scored a second. Paul Pogba's header was parried into Lukaku's path, just yards out, but he snatched at the opportunity again.

His effort sailed wide and his head disappeared into hands. This was a £75million signing so keen to impress and prove himself all over again that his faculties had gone missing.

Until just after the hour, that is. Just minutes after that staggering miss, Lukaku was again following in a shot and this time stroked past Keylor Navas.

Jose Mourinho will be encouraged by that refusal to shirk. And supporters who committed to the 3,500-mile round trip will have noticed too. 

Casemiro slides his shot past David de Gea to give Madrid the lead after 24 minutes

Casemiro had gone close twice before he met Dani Carvajal's cross to score the opener

Lukaku was often isolated at times with Jose Mourinho playing him as the lone striker

The former Everton striker looks to bring the ball down during sweltering conditions in Skopje

Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos looks to dispossess the forward in a one-sided first half

The late-night stragglers of Monday, those fans who found themselves along this city's river Vardar well into Tuesday, had sung his name proudly. The chant is not particularly imaginative but great importance has already been placed upon his signature among supporters.

Mourinho certainly viewed him as a priority, a genuine goalscorer to fill the void vacated by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. 

Text messages were sent back and forth, a phone call while pounding the streets of New York on holiday.

He was the one they wanted, he was the one they got. Chelsea boss Antonio Conte's flirtations were only that, Lukaku did not share the same depth of affection with the Italian.  

Lukaku looks to lay the ball off to a team-mate but Madrid were superior in every aspect

The 24-year-old cuts a forlorn figure as a chance goes begging for United in Macedonia

Isco doubles Real Madrid's lead with a well-taken strike after 52 minutes of the Super Cup

The diminutive forward took his chance from Gareth Bale's pass exquisitely to make it 2-0

United's persistence paid off and now they and he will be judged as to whether that was well-placed or not. 

Further goals will undoubtedly come and the reality is, forgetting that worrying first miss, that his dead-eyed precision will serve as handier in those home matches when pressure creates the sort of chances United passed up so often last year.

Here, though, it was tough. Raphael Varane and Sergio Ramos are an imposing back two and Lukaku, with the thankless task of fending them both off, struggled to consistently hold the ball, particularly in the air. Nobody had fewer touches than him in a first half dominated by Real. It simply did not stick.

But there were moments. Little glimmers. A quick lay-off here, a little dart there. A header, when off the shoulder of Ramos, to trouble Navas. Then the goal, a real show of character after what had gone before.

United made it 2-1 through Lukaku who was on hand to prod home from six yards out

The Belgium international will hope the goal is the first of many this season in a United shirt