Manchester United star Robin van Persie came off the bench to score the final goal Photo: Doha Stadium Plus
English Premier League giants Manchester United beat a less than inspiring A-League All Stars side 5-1 on Saturday night at ANZ Stadium in Sydney. The exhibition match was part of Manchester United’s pre-season tour and was their first visit to Australian shores in 14 years.
The opening period of the match saw the visitors commanding more of the play as the off-season and unfit All Stars side seemed reluctant to put in the zippy display they are capable of producing.
A loss of possession in midfield by the home side saw young Jesse Lingard stride past a napping defence and slot the ball past a helpless Ante Covic in goals to give United a 1-0 lead.
The All Stars continued to fall short of United’s challenge. The lack of game time together was affecting their cohesion which is the drawback in these types of games. However United found it very easy to hold possession, even at the pre-season friendly pace that they were playing at.
Another United attack in the 34th minute saw the All Stars defence caught napping again as Danny Wellbeck was played through by the evergreen Ryan Giggs, doubling the lead for the visitors with a simple finish.
Both teams managed to create an opportunity to score before the end of the half, but some good defence kept the score at 2-0 by the half time break.
The second half saw the All Stars come out and play with purpose as the visitors were being closed down and put on the back foot whenever the home side had possession. Their efforts were rewarded in the 52nd minute as Besart Berisha squeezed a shot just inside the near post from the edge of the box to make it 2-1.
But just when it looked like it was game on, some ordinary defending gave Lingard an opportunity to get a strike on goal and beat substitute keeper Mike Theo with a cracking shot that sailed into the top corner to make it 3-1 to United.
That goal took the wind out of the All Stars sails, but they were still managing to create some half chances with sporadic moments of creativity in attack. However, a 70th minute corner saw Danny Wellbeck rise above what seemed non-existent marking at the near post to score with a well taken header and stretch Manchester’s lead back out to 4-1.
The pace of the game slowed down for the remainder of the game which prompted the crowd to do some entertaining of their own as the Mexican wave made its way around the stadium.
The biggest cheer of the night came at the back of the game when substitute and crowd favourite Robin van Persie scored in the 87th minute to make it 5-1 in what was a fairly dominant display by the English champions.
Although the A-League side’s performance was fairly underwhelming, the majority of the crowd were Manchester United fans who would have been ecstatic after watching some of their heroes play live for the very first time. Let’s hope that their next return will be in less than 14 years to appease the appetite of our sports loving nation and stimulate the ever improving football pedigree in this country.
A-League All Stars 1 (Berisha 52′)
Manchester United 5 (Lingard 11′ 55′, Wellbeck 34′ 70′, van Persie 87′)
Crowd: 83,127
