Arsenal had a decent first half, but it ended 0-0. Either of the teams didn't manage to score, and both teams had chances of doing just that. At the start of the second half, Arsenal got their goal. The two subs combine to make the breakthrough and Lucas Podolski rifled home from the edge of the penalty box. Arsenal had the possession most of the time, and that resulted in more chances for the visitors. Walcott had a situation one-on-one with the keeper, but he tried to go round him and the keeper read his intentions. In the 58th minute the Reds from Urawa had a corner which Arsenal defenders failed to deal with, so they scored the equaliser. After that Arsenal took the ball in their feet again and started to put some pressure on the Urawa's defenders. In the final quarter of the game Arsenal made a significant substitution, as the youngster Akpom made his way into the game, with Walcott making place for the young Arsenal player to step up. The same player scored the winning goal in the 82nd minute after a bad mistake from the Urawa's defenders. Until the end of the game Arsenal had a few more chances but failed to score a 3rd goal, so the game ended:
Urawa Reds 1-2 Arsenal
Now lets move to the other Premier League team which played early this morning, same like Arsenal, in Japan. That was Manchester United, playing against Cerezo Osaka at the Nagai stadium. It was a match played in some tough conditions, with 30 degrees celsius and over 85% humidity. The match started well for the English side, having Robin Van Persie missing two great chances, in one-on-one situations in the first minutes of the game. Then Cerezo's players showed that they know how to control the ball and created some great chances. Anders Lindegaard was quite busy at the United goal. It was a huge surprise when the home side took the lead in the 34th minute of the game. Chris Smalling made a stupid mistake and Sugimoto took advantage of that and scored with a low shot into the corner. That was it for the first half.
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| Kagawa in action vs Cerezo Osaka |
In the second half United made some changes and that made an impact as Ashley Young was brought down in the penalty area, and the referee had no choice than to point to the spot. Former Cerezo player, Shinji Kagawa, who was the crowd favorite in the previous and in this match stepped up to the challenge, but he fluffed his big moment as Kim saved his lame penalty. However, the Japanese scored few minutes later when he was found by Giggs and he turned nicely to score with his left foot. United got their equaliser. Now, they tried to get the winner, but they were stunned again when Minamoto scored with a magnificent long shot effort. Just before the end of the game, in the 91st minute, another substitution, who is making a big impact at the United team in this pre-season tour, the new signing Wilfried Zaha, scored his first United goal, and that was the final result.
In the second half United made some changes and that made an impact as Ashley Young was brought down in the penalty area, and the referee had no choice than to point to the spot. Former Cerezo player, Shinji Kagawa, who was the crowd favorite in the previous and in this match stepped up to the challenge, but he fluffed his big moment as Kim saved his lame penalty. However, the Japanese scored few minutes later when he was found by Giggs and he turned nicely to score with his left foot. United got their equaliser. Now, they tried to get the winner, but they were stunned again when Minamoto scored with a magnificent long shot effort. Just before the end of the game, in the 91st minute, another substitution, who is making a big impact at the United team in this pre-season tour, the new signing Wilfried Zaha, scored his first United goal, and that was the final result.
Cerezo Osaka 2-2 Manchester United
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| Wilfried Zaha scoring his first United goal |
As a reward for his first goal, check out this fantastic video by KaiiZoVideo on Wilfried Zaha:
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