United win tight friendly against Espanyol

Manchester United 1 Espanyol 0

It is a pity Cristian Alvarez has no sense of history or charity otherwise Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have waved goodbye to Old Trafford with a goal 70,000 fans craved.

The Norwegian cult hero, scorer of the never-to-be-forgotten Champions League winner against Bayern Munich in 1999, twice let fly with shots he thought were going in. But on both occasions, Espanyol’s spoilsport goalkeeper denied him.

Still, Fraizer Campbell managed to find the net, sent clear by Ryan Giggs eight minutes from time, to ensure Solskjaer’s playing days ended on a winning note.

The popular striker will now concentrate his energies on coaching United’s reserve team, happy too that Unicef-backed school building projects in Africa will benefit from his final appearance in the famous red shirt.

It certainly represented a good workout for Alex Ferguson’s team, or at least the fit members of his European Cup-winning squad.

Of the 10 senior players who missed Solskjaer’s testimonial, the fitness of only three could be counted on with any confidence when the Premier League champions begin the defence of their title against Newcastle in a fortnight. And one of those, skipper Gary Neville, has not started a first team game in 17 months following major ankle and hamstring injuries.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s 42 goals will be missing even if the Portugal winger does not leave for Real Madrid as an ankle operation will keep him out until October.

United fans learned to trust Ferguson’s judgement in such matters a long time ago.

Yet of almost as much significance as the fact United are yet to sign anyone this summer is that the rumour mill has gone strangely quiet too.

The feeling remains that Dimitar Berbatov will end up at Old Trafford before the transfer deadline passes at the end of the month. But if reports of a cooling of Ferguson’s interest in the Bulgarian prove to be correct, any new arrivals look destined to come straight out of left field.

Not that it could be argued United are lacking in talent.

Add Wayne Rooney, kept out by a virus along with Michael Carrick, to attacking players of the prowess of Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Carlos Tevez and Ferguson can be justifiably confident.

Tevez in particular can be expected to produce big things.

United are keen enough to smash the £30million barrier to sign him permanently anyway.

Together with Rooney, Tevez gives the lie to a English belief that big is beautiful.

By darting around the opposition penalty area, the Argentina forward puts defences in trouble, creating a nervousness team-mates can exploit.

Espanyol were no different, only for Scholes to fire over twice and Tevez himself to fire over from the edge of the area after a quickly-taken free-kick.

Tevez is also a sparky character, having once been sent off in a pre-season friendly at Old Trafford during his Boca Juniors days.

So it was no surprise he took exception to a tackle from behind by Daniel Jarque, breaking off from suffering ankle-clutching pain to give the Espanyol skipper a hefty shove before resuming his agonies, or pick up a yellow card for a bruising challenge on Roman Martinez. Not to be outdone, Scholes was soon booked for a nasty foul on the same man.

Darren Fletcher also went close, as did Giggs. However, it was Nani who wasted the hosts’ best chance, drilling his shot into the side-netting after Scholes’ delicate chip had bounced back off a post.

Given the relative lack of numbers in attack, Campbell may find himself needed at Old Trafford rather than being loaned back out to Hull as he might have imagined.

The youngster was eager to take another chance to impress Ferguson and one 20-yard shot brought a smart low save out of Cristian Alvarez.

But, for the pleasing pace of Campbell as he raced on to Giggs’ superb pass to score at the end, there is no doubting the balance of play tipped in favour of the Catalans once Ferguson had made a few changes at the break, including the departure of Rio Ferdinand, who came home two games early from the tour of Africa to attend the birth of his second child.

It gives the United manager something to muse upon as he assesses a week that starts with a trip to his son Darren’s team, Peterborough, on Monday and also features encounters with Juventus 48 hours later and Portsmouth in the Community Shield next Sunday.