Shenzhen 0-6 Manchester United:Paul Scholes flew home injured to cast a dark shadow over an otherwise memorable Far East tour for Manchester United.
Although Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and debutant Nani turned on the style to give a capacity 15,000 crowd six of the best at the Macau Stadium, the departure of Scholes took the edge off what turned out to be an easy win against the weakest team United have faced on tour so far.
There was no immediate confirmation of the precise nature of Scholes' problem but the fact he has been sent back to Manchester after undergoing a scan yesterday, while Owen Hargreaves has remained despite being restricted to running only in training so far, tells its own story.
With just over a fortnight to the start of their Premier League title defence against Reading, Alex Ferguson is facing the unhappy prospect of being without two senior midfielders, meaning either Darren Fletcher or John O'Shea could be pressed into service alongside Michael Carrick against the Royals.
Perhaps wisely, Carrick did not start today's encounter on a dodgy-looking pitch.
In deference to the former Portuguese colony in which the game was being played, Ferguson did play Ronaldo and also Nani, who had finally recovered from the ankle injury that has dogged him since the European Under-21 Championships.
It did not take the 19-year-old long to make an impact though, latching on to Ryan Giggs' excellent lay-off before drilling a shot into the bottom corner.
Nani celebrated with a trademark double somersault, with Ferguson no doubt hoping plenty more of those are spotted at Old Trafford this season.
By that point, the visitors were already two goals up, with Giggs producing his most effective performance of the four-match trip, which concludes in Guangzhou on Friday, so far.
Giggs opened the scoring when he tapped home Rooney's square ball from close range. The Welshman then turned provider, offering Rooney the chance to chip home from outside the box.
United might have had more before the break but Wes Brown was ruled to have fouled Shenzhen keeper Xiao Jianjia before bundling home, while Ronaldo rattled the bar with a superb 25-yard free-kick.
Having made four changes at the break, including the withdrawal of Giggs, it looked for a while United might coast through the second half.
But O'Shea belted home Ronaldo's cut-back then, two minutes later, Nani showed explosive speed to burst over halfway before feeding Rooney who, in turn set up Ronaldo.
Rooney followed the two Portugal internationals off the field shortly afterwards but Chris Eagles manfully stepped into the breach to lash home a sixth.
Unfortunately for Alan Smith, whose future appears inextricably linked to United's attempt to sign Carlos Tevez, a failure to convert a golden opportunity 15 minutes from time will not have done much to convince Ferguson he can be an effective performer for the Red Devils this term.
