• Premier League

United slip to second friendly defeat

Marquinhos opened the scoring against Manchester United © Getty Images

Enlarge

Manchester United suffered their second defeat in three pre-season matches as J-League outfit Yokohama F Marinos struck late to sink David Moyes' men 3-2 at the Nissan Stadium.

Jesse Lingard had scored another goal to continue his impressive run of form for the Premier League champions but, despite holding a half-time lead, United were unable to keep their advantage.

In the stadium where they won the World Club Cup in 2008, not even the introduction to great acclaim of Shinji Kagawa, who surprisingly was named man of the match despite his late introduction, could inspire United to victory, with Yoshihito Fujita netting the winner three minutes from time.

Having named a youthful starting line-up, manager Moyes must have been delighted at the manner in which they responded to a quite unexpected early setback.

Their hosts piled forward straight from the kick-off but when David de Gea produced an acrobatic save to deny veteran Brazilian striker Marquinhos, United thought they had been let off the hook.

Instead, they struggled to regroup and when the ball was played back into the box, Marquinhos, 37, was on hand to turn it home with a first-time effort with not even half a minute on the clock.

It must have been a substantial positive for Moyes that none of those young heads went down. Indeed, two of them combined to haul United level after 18 minutes.

Lingard scored twice in in 5-1 win over A-League All Stars in Sydney on Saturday and is evidently in form. The 20-year-old played a pass out wide to Wilfried Zaha, then continued his run as the young England international burst into the box.

Masakazu Tashiro stretched to cut out the cross but Lingard pounced on the loose ball to take himself one clear of Danny Welbeck as the tour's top scorer.

Tashiro was not having the best of evenings and it was his own goal that gave United their advantage as he tried to clear a vicious Adnan Januzaj free-kick.

Jonny Evans failed to convert decent chances either side of the interval. The second in particular should have extended United's lead, only for the Northern Ireland international to turn Zaha's cut-back wide.

United had cause to regret that miss as, with the crowd distracted by national hero Kagawa's first appearance to warm-up, Marinos defender Fabio climbed highest at the far post to head home direct from a corner.

Welbeck spurned a glorious opportunity to restore United's lead virtually immediately and the visitors were still level on the hour when Kagawa was introduced.

The Japan star only started training fully on Monday after an extended break following the Confederations Cup.

Clearly, though, some kind of appearance was expected and he slotted in the middle of three attacking players operating just behind Welbeck.

Every touch was greeted with a sense of excitement and Kagawa almost set up a winner for fellow substitute Ashley Young, only for the England international's shot to get deflected into the side-netting.

A draw would have been a fair result but after good work from Jin Hanato, Fujita had the final word.

© Getty Images

Enlarge

Other Premier League teams in action on Tuesday included West Ham, who picked up their first win of their tour of Germany, beating Hamburg 3-1.

Matt Jarvis proved to be the main man for the East Londoners, setting up goals for both Alou Diarra and James Tomkins before winning a spot kick converted by Ravel Morrison.

The home side briefly halved the deficit through Heiko Westermann.

It was not such a good day for Aston Villa, who went down 2-0 at non-league Luton Town. Christian Benteke, who signed a new contract at Villa Park on Friday, played in the match, but was upstaged by Hatters strikers Jake Howells and John Shaw.

Premier League new boys Crystal Palace coasted past League 1 Gillingham 3-0 at the Priestfield. Former Exeter youngster Dean Moxey opened the scoring with a crisp drive from 30 yards before Stephen Dobbie made it two shortly after the break. Dobbie then set up trialist Quincy Owusu-Abeyie for the third.

Ten-man Newcastle United drew 1-1 in a bad-tempered game with Pacos de Ferreira. The Portuguese side took an early lead through Caetano, before a double sending-off which saw Caetano and Toon captain Fabricio Coloccini given their marching orders for a first-half clash. Shola Ameobi levelled the match with a powerful finish in the 60th minute.

Hull City are also in Portugal, where they shared a goalless draw with FC Braga.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd