By David Hobbs
July 31 2004

Manchester United rounded off their poor pre-season tour of the United States of America with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Italian giants AC Milan after Andriy Shevchenko struck 7 seconds from time to cancel out a first-half Paul Scholes goal.

More Penalty Misery For United

Manchester United rounded off their poor pre-season tour of the United States of America with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Italian giants AC Milan after Andriy Shevchenko struck 7 seconds from time to cancel out a first-half Paul Scholes goal.

The Red Devils suffered penalty misery during their first game against Bayern Munich and lost 2-1 to Scottish champions Celtic prior to this loss.

Members of the American press criticized Sir Alex Ferguson for not taking the tour seriously by bringing youth and fringe players and leaving out his stars but fielded a slightly stronger squad for this fixture. 

Euro 2004 competitors Paul Scholes and Mikael Silvestre joined up with he squad to make their first appearance on the tour. Ryan Giggs and Wes Brown also started despite minor injuries.

AC Milan captain Paolo Maldini got the game off to a lively start after heading wide and was involved in a controversial penalty decision moments later.

Maldini tripped Paul Scholes inside the box but much to the surprise of the New York crowd, referee Kevin Scott turned down the strong appeal.

Shevchenko and Kaka went close to breaking the deadlock with respective efforts before Wes Brown headed over from just yards out thanks to a Ryan Giggs cross.

But the deadlock was broken on the 33rd minute. A bad defensive error from Alessandro Nesta allowed Paul Scholes to fire home past AC keeper Dida.

Scholes continued to parade his attacking talents after the interval, heading agonisingly wide from a Mikael Silvestre ball. Diego Forlan replaced the England international soon after.

Great vision and link-up play from Cafu and Hernan Crespo released the latter to attempt an audacious back-heel but has saved by Howard.

United thought they had won the game until a surprise close-range Andriy Shevchenko goal wiped the smiles off the faces of United's player and fans alike.

The Ukrainian forced the game to go into a dreaded penalty-shootout. Diego Forlan, Alan Smith, Chris Eagles, Wes Brown, Kieran Richardson, Eric Djemba-Djemba, Gary Neville and Phil Neville all converted their penalty but Roy Keane and Tim Howard both missed to give the Italians the win.

 Full Time - Manchester United 1-1 AC Milan
AC Milan win 9-8 on penalties

Manchester United: Howard, Bardsley (P Neville), G Neville, Brown, Silvestre (Spector), Keane, Djemba-Djemba, Bellion (Eagles), Giggs (Richardson), Scholes (Forlan), Smith