Manchester United hit six past Shenzhen

FE Team | Published: July 24, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

MACAU, Jul 23 (AFP): English Premier League champions Manchester United handed FC Shenzhen a footballing lesson with a 6-0 victory in Macau Monday, even though they were missing injured midfielder Paul Scholes.
Scholes sat out his side's win with a knee injury that is set to end his role in the club's Far East tour.
The former England international, 32, is expected to fly home on Tuesday for a scan in Manchester after injuring his knee in training, but United hardly needed the veteran as they made light work of Shenzhen.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was able to hand Portuguese winger Nani his club debut against Shenzhen after the 20-year-old had sat out the first two games of the tour with an ankle injury.
The 17.3 million pounds (35.5 million dollars) close season signing from Sporting Lisbon showed a glimpse of his talent midway through the first half.
By that stage, United had already shown that they were far too strong for their Chinese opponents. Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney went close to opening the scoring before Ryan Giggs made it 1-0 on 12 minutes.
Giggs, captain for the night, tapped in from six yards after Darren Fletcher's neat pass had found Rooney on the edge of the penalty area before the United forward unselfishly squared for the Welsh forward to score.
Shenzhen could not escape their own half and Rooney doubled United's lead eight minutes later with a sublime chip over the helpless goalkeeper.
England star Rooney had been released by Giggs and he spotted the goalkeeper off his line, coolly lofting the ball over his head from 20 yards.
The crowd inside the Macau Stadium were desperate to see new boy Nani make an impact and the youngster produced the goods on 24 minutes when he netted his first United goal with a right-foot strike from 20 yards, again after good work by Giggs.
Dominant United then had a goal disallowed on 42 minutes when Wes Brown's close range strike from a Giggs corner was ruled out following a foul on goalkeeper Xiao Jianjia.
Then Ronaldo went agonisingly close to scoring one minute before the interval with a dipping free-kick that crashed against the crossbar.
United showed no mercy in the second half as they tore Shenzhen apart and rattled in three more goals to complete an emphatic victory.
Republic of Ireland midfielder John O'Shea claimed United's fourth goal on 55 minutes when Brown and Ronaldo linked up before O'Shea was left to tap in from close range.