Amazulu 0 Manchester U 1

Federico Macheda

Amazulu FC 0 Man­chester Uni­ted 1, Moses Mab­hida Sta­dium, Friendly Mat­ch, Ju­ly 18, 2012. Man­chester Uni­ted got off to a win­ning start on their 2012 pre-sea­son tour as they be­at Pre­mier Soc­cer Lea­gue out­fit Amazulu 1-0 in front of an at­tend­ance of more than 50,000 spec­tat­ors at the Moses Mab­hida Sta­dium in Durb­an. The sole goal of the fix­ture was net­ted by Italy U21 in­ter­na­tion­al stri­ker Fe­d­erico Ma­cheda in the 20th min­ute of the contest.

Man­chester Uni­ted, who had de­feated Ka­izer Chiefs 4-0 at the Loftus Versfeld Sta­dium in Pre­tor­ia in their last mat­ch on So­uth Afric­an soil the 26th of June 2008, made an ac­cept­able start to their pre-sea­son pre­par­a­tions wi­th a 1-0 win ag­ainst Amazulu at the Moses Mab­hida Sta­dium in Durb­an. The fix­ture may have fallen on the 94th birth­day of wor­ld states­man and for­mer So­uth Afric­an Pres­id­ent Nel­son Man­dela, but Man­chester Uni­ted showed no mercy what­soever ag­ainst the loc­al her­oes. Amazulu shot stop­per Tapi­wa Kapini ma­naged to keep a clean sheet un­til the 20th min­ute of ac­tion when Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov sent a clev­er thro­ugh ball to Fe­d­erico Ma­cheda who fin­ished pa­st a com­pletely help­less ho­me goal­keeper to give the vis­it­ors a fully de­served 1-0 lead. Sum­mer sign­ing Shinji Ka­gawa from Bor­us­sia Dort­mund re­placed Javi­er Her­nandez in the 89th min­ute and ma­naged to give a good ac­count of him­self des­pite com­ing on so late in the ga­me. Ro­ger Palmgren´s Amazulu push­ed hard for an equal­iser dur­ing stop­page time, but the hosts ul­ti­mately fou­nd them­selves on the wrong si­de of a 1-0 sco­reline. Amazulu Te­am: Tapi­wa Kapini, Bukasa Kasonga, Car­ling­ton Nyadombo, Ma­rk van Heer­den, Tsweu Mokoro, Ram­son Zhuwa­wo, Kagiso Se­namela, Bongani Mb­hele, Ay­anda Dla­mini, Si­fiso Vil­akazi, Good­man Dla­mini. Sub­stitutes: Prince Hlela, Stan­ley Kg­atla, Josef Lekata, Mx­ol­isi May­onga, Tham­san­qa Tey­ise, Du­lee John­son, Mbon­geni Mz­i­mela. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: An­ders Linde­gaard, Rio Fer­dinand, Fre­der­ic Veseli, Rob­bie Bra­dy, Scott Woot­ton, Paul Scho­les, Jesse Lin­gard, Mi­chael Car­rick, Chi­charito, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, Fe­d­erico Ma­cheda. Sub­stitutes: Shinji Ka­gawa, Va­lencia, Tyler Black­ett, An­der­son, Mar­nick Vermijl, Bebe, Nick Pow­ell, Dav­ide Petrucci, Ry­an Tunnicliffe, Sam John­stone, Ben Amos.

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