Rooney, Ronaldo and Gerrard all come out to play as United and Liverpool both ease to victory over FC Seoul and Auxerre respectively. Meanwhile, Sanchez took his all-new Fulham lineup to Brighton and came back with a win. Get the lineups, scorers and all the necessary here…
Auxerre 0 Liverpool 2
Liverpool recorded their fourth pre-season victory with a win over Auxerre. Gerrard got his first goal of the summer firing home from a Finnan through ball. Agger headed the second from a El Zhar corner in the second-half. The young Moroccan earned praise from Rafa after the game, although Benayoun was named Man of the Match. Torres played his second game for Liverpool as a second-half sub. Liverpool now leave for the Far East where they’ll two games in Hong Kong before facing Feyenoord on August 5.
Liverpool Lineup: Mihaylov,Arbeloa (Darby 46), Carragher (Agger 46), Paletta, Finnan (Riise 46), Babel (Pennant 46), Gerrard ( Alonso 46), Hobbs, Benayoun (El Zhar 36), Voronin (Crouch 46), Kuyt (Torres 46).
FC Seoul 0 Man United 4
Goals from Ronaldo, Rooney, Eagles and Evra saw them cruise to victory in front of an adoring Korean crowd. United rested Scholes, Giggs, Brown and Fletcher from the side that drew with Urawa Red Diamonds with Eagles, Bardsley, Silvestre and O’Shea all gettting starts. Evra was pushed into a midfield role. Hargreaves and Nani are still sidelined with knocks. Hargreaves has tendonitis trouble in his knee but hopes to play a part in United’s remaining two games on the Far East tour. Nani meanwhile trained but was not considered ready but we should see a first glimpse of him in United’s next game on Monday.
Man United Lineup: van der Sar (Kuszczak, 45), Bardsley (Simpson, 45), Ferdinand, Vidic (Evans, 77), Silvestre, Eagles, Carrick (Scholes, 45), O’Shea, Evra, Rooney (Smith, 45), Ronaldo (Giggs, 45)
Brighton 1 Fulham 2
Goals from Dempsey and Smertin were enough to see off Brighton as Fulham gave further runouts to new signings, Davis, Kamara, Konchesky, Baird and Healy. Smertin was again impressive and is fighting it out with Diop for a midfield berth come August 11 with Brown suspended for the first two opening fixtures. Niemi went off on 25 minutes – presumably with an injury. There’s no word on that as yet.
Fulham Lineup: Niemi (Warner 25), Baird, Konchesky (Bocanegra 46), Pearce (Knight 46), Hughes (Queudrue 46), Davis (Smertin 46), Diop (Timlin 46), Davies (Rosenior 46), Dempsey, McBride (Ehui 46), Healy (Kamara 46).