Man Utd 3 Crystal Palace 1 : Five Nigerian teenagers including Ebiowei feature for Eagles

Five teenagers of Nigerian descent were given minutes by manager Patrick Vieira as Crystal Palace suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands of a star-studded Manchester United side in a pre-season friendly at the Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia on Tuesday.

Vieira included several academy stars on the roster due to the unavailability of majority of his senior players owing to fitness issues or their Covid-19 vaccination status.

Malcolm Ebiowei, who was heavily courted by Manchester United this summer before completing his switch to Selhurst Park, was handed his first start of the pre-season, and he was joined on the pitch by defensive midfielder David Ozoh, left-back Tayo Adaramola and striker Ademola Ola-Adebomi in the 65th minute.

More changes were made by Vieira in the 76th minute, one of which saw exciting attacker Victor Akinwale come off the bench as a replacement for Ebiowei.

It was a pleasing first half for Erik ten Hag's side as they were 1-0 up at the break thanks to Anthony Martial, who chested the ball and fired past goalkeeper Remi Matthews to open the scoring.

After some lovely footwork to beat the United defenders, Ebiowei came close to netting an equaliser but saw his shot parried by De Gea in the 21st minute.

Marcus Rashford doubled the advantage two minutes into the second half after some lovely exchanges in the box ended with an easy finish for him as Palace goalkeeper Matthews was left in no man's land.

Jadon Sancho also joined the party with a goal in the 59th minute after a blistering counter-attack left him one-on-one with Matthews, before Joel Ward pulled one back when he headed home from a corner in the 74th minute.

With six minutes left on the clock, United were down to ten men after William Fish was shown a red card for bringing down Akinwale just outside the area.

Crystal Palace face Leeds United at the Optus Stadium in Perth in their next friendly on Friday, July 22.

Sofoluwe Mayowa

Photo Credit : cpfc.co.uk

Copyright ANS

All rights reserved. This material, and other digital content on this website, may not be reproduced, published, rewritten or redistributed in whole or in part without prior express written permission from allnigeriasoccer.com