Man Utd look the Real deal in front of record US crowd

Sport360 staff 03:54 03/08/2014
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  • Jam-packed: More than 100,000 fans watched United play Real in Michigan.

    Manchester United had an excel­lent outing against Real Madrid as they thrashed the Spanish giants 3-1 in their International Challenge Cup match in Michigan last night.

    Ashley Young opened the scor­ing for the Red Devils in the 21st minute but six minutes later Gareth Bale pulled one back for Real via a penalty after he was pulled down by Michael Keane.

    But United were in the lead on 37 minutes, Young doing the honours after deceiving Iker Casillas and slotting in the bottom corner of the net. And 10 minutes from the end, Javier Hernandez’s header sealed the deal for United.

    Earlier, Dimitrios Diamantakos scored twice in regulation time while Roberto Jimenez Gago made two saves in a shootout to help Olympiakos beat Manchester City 5-4 on penalties in Minneapolis.

    The Citizens opened the scoring with a Stevan Jovetic goal in the 35th minute but two minutes later, Diamantakos hit back for the Greek side. Aleksander Kolarov put City 2-1 up in the 53rd minute via a pen­alty after David Silva was tripped in the Olympiakos box.

    Diamanta­kos levelled in the 65th minute, eas­ing past goalkeeper Joe Hart and blasting it into the open net as the match went into penalties. Mean­while in other matches, a familiar face came on and helped new-look Barcelona draw 1-1 with Nice in a friendly in southern France last night.

    The veteran Xavi Hernandez was introduced at half-time with the Catalans trailing 1-0 to the Ligue 1 club at the Allianz Riviera stadium.

    And he equalised from the pen­alty spot midway through the sec­ond half after Romain Genevois was adjudged to have fouled young forward Munir El Haddadi.

    Earlier, Argentine striker Dario Cvitanich had put Nice in front from the spot after he himself had been brought down by Gerard Pique.

    New Barcelona coach Luis Enrique handed starts to summer signings Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Jeremy Mathieu, while Ivan Rakitic and Alen Halilovic were among a raft of players brought on as substitutes.

    Barca’s next friendly will be against Napoli on Wednesday. Their opening game in La Liga will be against Elche on August 24.

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