Tour: United’s Four Star Show…
Goals: Ronaldo; Eagles; Rooney;Evra.
Times: Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney were both on target as Manchester United ran out easy winners over FC Seoul in front of a 60,000 crowd.
In sticky and humid conditions, the Red Devils turned on the style, smashing home three goals inside the opening 20 minutes before Patrice Evra’s second-half effort wrapped up an easy win.
Sir Alex Ferguson proclaimed himself satisfied with Manchester United’s performance.
“In the second half Seoul got far more possession than we did and we resorted to more counter-attacking play, ” he said. “You have to take all the good out of it that you can. It was a fantastic crowd, they were well entertained and there was a good atmosphere. I think we’ve made a big impact here.”
Ferguson was also impressed with how well Ronaldo and Rooney played, adding: “We worked on a system where we could get Cristiano and Wayne Rooney working together, it was interesting and the two of them worked well together and showed a good understanding.”
A vicious dipping volley from Ronaldo had already flown just over when he collected Rooney’s square ball, advanced a couple of strides and then belted a shot into the bottom corner.
Ronaldo then provided the telling pass for Chris Eagles to convert a well-taken second.
Within two minutes, Rooney had powered home his first goal of United’s pre-season campaign, darting forward to collect Ronaldo’s square pass before unleashing a shot that FC Seoul keeper Kim Byung-ji was unable to stop.
Giggs and Scholes were introduced off the bench at half-time, as was Alan Smith, whom Ferguson confirmed yesterday could leave the club this summer if the Carlos Tevez deal eventually goes through.
However, Nani was not fit enough to take part even though the £18million new boy is virtually over the ankle injury he suffered on duty for Portugal at the European Under-21 Championships.
With temperatures above 27 degrees and the humidity level at 75 per cent, United would have been forgiven for easing off in the second half.
Yet Evra had enough strength in his legs to slot home a fourth just before the hour.
United (4-4-2): Van der Sar (Kuszczak h-t); Bardsley (Simpson h-t), Ferdinand, Vidic (Evans 76), Silvestre; Eagles, Carrick (Scholes h-t), O’Shea, Evra; Ronaldo (Smith h-t), Rooney (Giggs h-t).
Subs: Heaton, Brown, Fletcher.
Goals: Ronaldo (5), Eagles (18), Rooney (20), Evra (59).
Booked: Bardsley, Vidic, Scholes.
