English Premier League: Pre-season friendly round-up
The latest round of pre-season friendlies involved Premier League teams such as Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Sunderland, Bolton, Birmingham and Blackburn Rovers. Liverpool played Grasshopper F.C, a Swiss club in their pre-season friendly which was held in Zurich. Liverpool, who were having a great week as they signed Joe Cole and Gerrard, did not perform impressively in the match.
Under their new manager, Roy Hodgson, this was their first friendly match of the pre-season. Alberto Aquilani featured for the reds as they took on Grasshopper F.C. Most of the starting lineup for Liverpool consisted of youngsters from the reserve team.
There was a dearth of goal mouth action during the match, as Liverpool’s best chance came with Alberto Aquilani’s free kick which was tipped away by Grasshopper’s keeper Ivan Benito. Liverpool’s striker David N’gog also found himself at the end of two good chances but he failed to score through either one of them.
For the Swiss club, Nzuzi Bundebele Toko came the closest to scoring a goal but his effort was thwarted by Diego Cavalieri and Stephen Darby, who showed good defensive awareness. At the other end, Toko also came close to scoring an own goal but he was bailed out of trouble due to his keepers lightening reflexes.
Liverpool’s rivals Manchester United, played their second pre-season match in U.S.A against the Philadelphia Union. United won their first match of their pre-season tour against Celtic in Toronto. United’s match against Philadelphia was primarily a dull event.
United’s first goal and the only goal of the match came in the 76th minute when Daniel Wellbeck intercepted a weak pass in the midfield area. Wellbeck then ran through the defense and played a simple ball towards Gabriel Obertan who slotted the ball home.
In the last ten minutes of the match, Dimitar Berbatov almost doubled United’s advantage but his shot only thudded against the goal post. The eventual result of the match was 1-0 to Manchester United. The red devils are scheduled to play their next match in Kansas, U.S.A.
Arsenal, who finished third in the English Premier League last season, played Strum Graz in a pre-season friendly match which took place in Austria. Strum Graz were battered by Arsenal as Samir Nasri scored two goals for the Gunners in the first half of the match. Wenger’s side scored their second in the last half of the match through their substitute Henri Lansbury.
English Premier League side, Blackburn Rovers lost their pre-season friendly against Huddersfield. Joey Gudjonsson scored a brilliantly taken goal for Huddersfield as they won the match by a score line of one goal to nil.
Sunderland drew their match against Brighton as both the teams scored a goal each during the match. Bolton also drew their match against Toronto B-team in normal time but they won the penalty shootout that ensued after the encounter. In doing so the Wanderers won the Carlsberg Cup.
Birmingham won its friendly pre-season match against Beijing Guoan. Birmingham City’s only goal came through Garry O’Conner, however they did create chances in the game to score more goals but they failed to capitalize on the opportunities. Birmingham’s new striker Nikola Zigic struck the goal post in the first half of the match while City’s defender Liam Ridgewell almost opened his account as well but he was denied because of a goal line clearance from the Chinese club.
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