English Premier League: Manchester United defeat Celtic in pre-season tie
English powerhouse, Manchester United battered their British rivals Celtic, in a pre-season match which was held in Canada. As a part of the pre-season tour to North America and Mexico, both of the British teams were scheduled to play each other at the Rogers Center in Toronto, Canada.
Manchester United’s most standout player during the match was Dimitar Berbatov, who has in recent times come under criticism from Manchester United’s supporters for his lack of goals and effort in a Manchester United shirt.
In the pre-season match against Celtic, Dimitar Berbatov was on fire as he directed all of United’s attacking moves. He dropped deep and used his superior control and vision on the ball to create chances for his team mates.
Berbatov was signed by Manchester United on 1st of September, 2008 for an initial fee of 23.4 million pounds from Tottenham Hotspurs. In his time at Tottenham Hotspurs, Berbatov played a total number of 102 games. In these games, Berbatov scored 46 times for the North London club.
At Manchester United, Berbatov’s goal scoring record has not been that great. His first game for United was against United’s rivals Liverpool at Anfield. Even though Manchester United eventually lost the game by a score line of two goals to one, Berbatov marked his debut appearance for the red devils by assisting the goal which was scored by his team-mate Carlos Tevez.
Berbatov’s first goal for Manchester United came in an English Premier League tie against West Bromwich Albion, during which he scored United’s third goal of the match in a four nil win over West Brom. In his first season at United, Berbatov assisted an amazing number of 10 goals, in doing so he finished a joint second in the league in terms of assists along with Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard. Berbatov scored 14 goals for United in all competitions in his debut season at the club.
Berbatov also scored Manchester United’s first goal in their recently held pre-season tie against Celtic in Canada. Berbatov controlled his team-mate Diouf’s low cross and slotted is past Celtic’s keeper Lukasz Zaluska to give his team the lead at the 33rd minute mark of the match. Celtic quickly equalized from the penalty that resulted from Smalling’s foul on Celtic’s striker Samaras. However, United ran rampant again as they scored their next two goals of the match in quick succession. United’s second came through Danny Wellbeck as Dimitar Berbatov played a simple ball for the youngster to score from.
Manchester United’s third goal of the match was scored by their substitute Tom Cleverley, who played a terrific one-two with Dimitar Berbatov at edge of Celtic’s penalty area. The ensuing shot from the 20-year old youngster took a huge deflection off a Celtic player and ended up in the back of the net for Manchester United.
The match ended 3-1 in favor of the former English premier league champions, who play their next game against Philadelphia Union on Thursday, next week. While Celtic are scheduled to take on Braga in their champions league qualifier on Tuesday.
Tags: