Michael Owen Scores A Brace

Michael Owen

Barclays Premier League lead­ers Manchester United defeated League Cham­pi­on­ship out­fit Leeds United 3–0 at Elland Road in the Foot­ball League Cup Third Round on Tues­day. Former Eng­land inter­na­tional Michael Owen scored the game´s two first goals within the open­ing 32 minutes before fel­low vet­eran Ryan Giggs made the score read 3–0 in Manchester United´s favour shortly before the sound of the half time signal.

Although Sir Alex Fer­guson made as many as eleven changes from the team that defeated Chelsea last Sunday, Manchester United had no prob­lems with their old rivals from West York­shire yes­ter­day. The Pea­cocks could have gone ahead early in the game, though, when Leeds United defender Tom Lees headed a corner which was just cleared from the line by the ever present Ryan Giggs in the fifth minute of the cup match. After fif­teen minutes of play, how­ever, Ji-sung Park found Michael Owen who calmly put the ball past the Leeds goal­keeper and into the back of the net to give Manchester United a deserved lead.

Twenty minutes later, the pre­vi­ous Liv­er­pool goal poacher scored his second goal for Manchester United when he received a low cross from Mame Biram Diouf and rifled the ball into the top corner of the net bey­ond a help­less Andy Loner­gan. With just a few seconds remain­ing of the first half, Ryan Giggs made it 3–0 to Manchester United when the seasoned cam­paigner cut in from the left and fired a fierce left-foot shot from inside the box, giv­ing the goal­keeper no chance. Hailed as a future star player, Paul Pogba even­tu­ally came on for the former Wales inter­na­tional in the 46th minute of the game.

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