Federico Macheda Nets The Winner

Fed­erico Macheda

Manchester United got off to a win­ning start on their 2012 pre-season tour as they beat Premier Soc­cer League side Amazulu FC 1–0 in front of a 50,000 crowd at the Moses Mab­hida Sta­dium in Durban on Wed­nes­day. The sole goal of the friendly match was net­ted by Italy U21 inter­na­tional Fed­erico Macheda in the 20th minute of action.

Eng­lish Premier League Runners-Up Manchester United made an excel­lent start to their pre-season pre­par­a­tions with a hard fought and nar­row 1–0 tri­umph against Amazulu FC yes­ter­day. The game may have fallen on the 94th birth­day of world states­man and former South African Pres­id­ent Nel­son Man­dela but the vis­it­ors showed no mercy what­so­ever against the local her­oes. The Amazulu FC shot stop­per man­aged to keep a clean sheet until the 20th minute of the play when ever­green vet­eran striker Dim­itar Ber­batov sent an intel­li­gent through ball to Fed­erico Macheda who fin­ished behind a com­pletely help­less Tapuwa Kapini to give Manchester United a fully deserved 1–0 lead. Sum­mer sign­ing Shinji Kagawa from Bor­us­sia Dortmund star­ted the match on the sub­sti­tutes’ bench but was given his chance after 89 minutes for Mex­ico inter­na­tional Javier Hernan­dez. Des­pite a cred­it­able per­form­ance from Amazulu FC, the home team ulti­mately found them­selves on the wrong side of a 1–0 sco­reline. After over­com­ing Roger Palmgren´s plucky play­ers on Wed­nes­day, Manchester United make the jour­ney to Cape Town to take on Ajax Cape Town at Green Point Sta­dium on Sat­urday. Manchester United: Anders Linde­gaard, Rio Ferdin­and, Fre­deric Veseli, Scott Woot­ton, Rob­bie Brady, Paul Scholes, Jesse Lingard, Michael Car­rick, Javier Hernan­dez, Dim­itar Ber­batov, Fed­erico Macheda.

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