| Match Pictures | Matches: 2003 – 2004 | 2003-2004 Pictures |
Trivia
- Champions World Series 2003, Venue – Seahawks Stadium, Seattle USA.
Review
In front of a record 66,772 crowd at Seattle's Seahawks Stadium, Van Nistelrooy began the rout in typically deadly fashion. He received a sixth-minute pass from Solskjaer before firing a left-footed shot past Celtic keeper Magnus Hedman.
United captain Roy Keane brought down Stilian Petrov in the area after 18 minutes but Alan Thompson missed the penalty and United took complete control.
Dutch forward Van Nistelrooy turned provider for Giggs for United's second on 29 minutes.
Solskjaer – filling in well for Beckham on the right flank – then swept home a right foot shot to give United a 3-0 lead six minutes before half-time.
Scholes fed Bellion and, despite looking offside, the former Sunderland player slotted home from an acute angle with 18 minutes remaining.
Teams
Celtic
Hedman (Douglas 46), Balde, Laursen (Mjallby 46), Varga (McNamara 73), Thompson (Petta), Agathe (Sylla 73), Lennon (Lambert 46), Petrov (Miller 46), Smith (Maloney 46), Larsson (Fernandez 73), Sutton (Beattie 86).
Subs:- Kennedy, Wallace, Crainey
Man U
Caroll, Neville G, Ferdinand, O'Shea, Neville P (Pugh 88), Butt, Keane (Veron 45), Fortune (Scholes 67), Giggs (Bellion 60), Van Nistlerooy (Forlan 60), Solksjaer (Richardson 75).
Subs:- Ricardo, Fletcher, Lynch
Goals:- Van Nistlerooy 6, Giggs 29, Solksjaer 42, Bellion 71.
Att:- 66,772
Referee: Kevin Terry
Articles
- Match Report (see end of page below)
Pictures
Articles
Man Utd thump Celtic
BBC
Man Utd 4-0 Celtic
Manchester United showed there is life after David Beckham with an impressive victory over Celtic in the opening game of their pre-season tour of the United States.
Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and debutant David Bellion each scored to give the Premiership champions an ideal result in their first appearance since Beckham left for Real Madrid.
"Celtic made it difficult but there was a good energy about us and our finishing was terrific. The goals were marvellous," said United manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
Ferguson was also full of praise for Bellion.
"For any young lad of 20 to make his debut and score is exciting.
"I hope he develops – he has quite a bit to learn but he has good enthusiasm.
"He's lightning quick, his control is good but he has to develop parts of his game.
"You want a competitive element through the club and have so many players competing for a first-team place.
"There are no guarantees at Manchester United. If you perform well it gives me the decision of what to do with the team."
In front of a record 66,772 crowd at Seattle's Seahawks Stadium, Van Nistelrooy began the rout in typically deadly fashion.
He received a seventh-minute pass from Solskjaer before firing a left-footed shot past Celtic keeper Magnus Hedman.
United captain Roy Keane brought down Stilian Petrov in the area after 18 minutes but Alan Thompson missed the penalty for the Scottish side before United took complete control.
Dutch forward Van Nistelrooy turned provider for Giggs for United's second on 29 minutes.
Solskjaer – filling in well for Beckham on the right flank – then swept home a right foot shot to give United a 3-0 lead six minutes before half-time.
Keane was replaced by Juan Sebastian Veron at the interval as both teams began to introduce their substitutes, and United lacked their earlier sharpness until Paul Scholes and Bellion came on.
Scholes fed his new team-mate and, despite looking offside, the former Sunderland player slotted home from an acute angle with 18 minutes remaining.
O'Neill salutes Man Utd's class
BBC
Martin O'Neill admitted Manchester United are a class apart from the teams Celtic beat on the way to the Uefa Cup final after his side were thrashed by the Premiership champions on Wednesday morning.
A 4-0 defeat at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson's team brought to an end an impressive unbeaten run against Premiership opposition.
Despite the margin of defeat, O'Neill was not too despondent afterwards.
But he acknowledged that Celtic have some work to do before their first competitive game of the season, the Champions League qualifier against either Kaunas and Torshavn.
"Manchester are vying with Real Madrid to be the best team in Europe," he said.
"Their finishing was absolutely clinical but we didn't help ourselves with some very sloppy defending.
"It is only pre-season but we have been working for two weeks and clearly we still have plenty to do.
"If we had scored the penalty it would have gone to 1-1 and given us drive and enthusiasm to keep going but within a couple of minutes they had made it 2-0 and it was a long old battle after that.
"United have been competing in the Champions League for quite a few years and they have learned quite a bit from that sort of experience.
"We are improving and trying to get there but Manchester United are the benchmark."