MANCHESTER, England, August 10 – Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand saw his testimonial party ruined by Sevilla as the Spanish side won 3-1 at Old Trafford on Friday.
Ferdinand was celebrating 11 successful years with United, but the former England star ended the night on the losing side as his club’s inconsistent pre-season form continued.
While it was only a friendly, and most of United’s senior stars missed out in readiness for Sunday’s Community Shield against Wigan at Wembley, it does mean they have won just two of seven pre-season matches since David Moyes replaced Alex Ferguson as manager at the end of last season.
Following the failure to make any significant signings to date, and the continued uncertainty over Wayne Rooney’s future, the result is hardly the ideal backdrop to a Premier League title defence that starts at Swansea next Saturday.
On-loan Chelsea midfielder Marko Marin was among the scorers for Sevilla, who had flown in from Montenegro where they completed a comfortable Europa League victory over Mladost Podgorica in midweek.
Moyes could not be happy at the ease with which Vitolo and Marin got their first-half goals.
Prior to the double blow, Chilean teenager Angelo Henriquez fired straight at Beto after being sent clean through, while afterwards, Shinji Kagawa should have found the net after being picked out at the far post by Antonio Valencia.
Valencia blazed over in first-half stoppage time before Adnan Januzaj was off target with a curling effort just after the break.
Januzaj’s presence, along with that of Jesse Lingard, who was introduced at half-time, was another opportunity to impress for two young stars who have shone during pre-season.
And the pair combined as Januzaj forced another good save out of Beto before nipping onto the rebound and crossing for Valencia to finish off.
Lingard just failed to finish off Fabio’s low cross as he slid in at the far post as a now more experienced United outfit — bolstered by the introductions of Ryan Giggs, Michael Carrick, Phil Jones and Wilfried Zaha — began to take control.
Zaha and Carrick both had opportunities to level near the end but were unable to take them.
Former Crystal Palace winger Zaha almost brought United level three minutes from time, only for Beto to make another smart save.
And at the end, Bryan Rabello ensured there was no winning finale for Ferdinand.
