Michael Owen secured a 3-2 victory for the Reds in their opening Asia Tour match on Saturday, coming off the bench to fire the winner on his debut against a hard-working Malaysian XI.

Sir Alex’s men had earlier taken a 2-0 lead through Wayne Rooney and Nani. Rooney opened the scoring on eight minutes, tapping in from close range, and then turned provider for Nani, who finished with aplomb, 20 minutes later.

A stunning volley on half-time from Mohammed Amri Yahyah gave the hosts hope, before a mistake from Ben Foster seven minutes after the restart allowed Yahyah to grab his second. But Owen wrapped up the win with a cool finish five minutes from time.

In searing heat, the Reds were given a good workout by their enthusiastic and energetic opponents who were only five minutes away from a famous result.

Sir Alex picked a strong side for the match against a hugely inexperienced Malaysian side (only four players in their side were over 23), but opted to leave Owen on the bench. With Nemanja Vidic missing through injury, Jonny Evans partnered skipper Rio Ferdinand in central defence, with John O’Shea and Patrice Evra on the right and left flanks respectively. In front of them, Darron Gibson took up a position on the right with Nani down the left. Paul Scholes and Anderson anchored the midfield, while Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov linked up in attack.

And it was the Bulgarian who had United’s first sight of goal after just three minutes. Anderson's ball into him on the edge of the area just rolled under his foot, but after a couple of ricochets the ball dropped for Berbatov, who struck a first time, right-foot dipping volley that was expertly pushed round the post by Mohammed Farizal Marlias in the Malaysia goal. From Nani’s resulting corner, Berbatov flashed a header just wide.

Five minutes later, Zaquan struck a speculative low drive from 40 yards and Yahyah saw an effort easily collected by Edwin van der Sar after he’d stolen in following some miscontrol by Evra.

To the delight of the United-mad crowd inside the Bukit Jalil Stadium, the Reds took the lead on eight minutes through the lively Rooney. A superb cross-field pass from Anderson picked out Gibson on the right. The Irish international’s cross towards the Reds' no.10 was cut out, but the ball bounced back into Rooney's path and allowed him to find Berbatov in the box. His first-time effort was well saved by Marlias, but it fell to Wazza to blast into the roof of the net from two yards.

The striker almost doubled his tally two minutes later when he latched onto Nani’s left-wing cross. Only a brilliant fingertip save from Marlias prevented his volley into the ground from looping into the net.

United continued to look dangerous in attack and Scholes went close with a glorious effort from the edge of the area that flew just wide of Marlias’ right upright on 19 minutes.

Nine minutes later, the Reds made it two. A clever one-two between Rooney and Berbatov set the Englishman away down the left. He cut inside, before threading an inch-perfect pass into the onrushing Nani who calmly slotted home. Cue the acrobatics from the Portuguese winger.

With the Malaysians offering little going forward apart from some speculative long-range efforts, United were in cruise control. But they were left stunned by a piece of magic from Yahyah on the stroke of half-time. A long punt upfield by Marlias was misjudged by Evra, allowing Yahyah to pick-up possession. The midfielder didn’t think twice before striking a brilliant looping volley over the head of van der Sar.

The Dutch stopper was given a breather after the break and was replaced by Ben Foster, whose pre-season got off to the worst possible start. Just seconds after Rooney had flicked the ball inches wide of Marlias’ right-hand post following a glorious set-up from Scholes, the Malaysians drew level on 52 minutes after a horrible error from the England stopper. An innocuous backpass from Gibson was completely missed by Foster, letting the ever-alert Yahyah steal in and slide the ball home.

A quadruple substitution from Sir Alex soon followed, with Michael Owen, sporting the no.7 shirt, given his first taste of action in the red of United. Zoran Tosic, Fabio and Wes Brown, who took over the captain’s armband from Ferdinand, also entered the fray.

United set about regaining their lead and Nani went close in the 64th minute with a dipping cross-come-shot from the right that was tipped away by Marlias. The stopper saved again from Nani nine minutes later, with Owen screwing the rebound well off target.

He made no mistake five minutes from time, however, as United wrapped up
victory. A lovely through-ball from Gibson towards substitute Ryan Giggs, who had made his way into the area, was cut out brilliantly by the onrushing Marlias, but with the keeper out of position Owen picked his spot and calmly slotted in for his first United goal.

Team Line-ups
United: van der Sar (Foster 46); O'Shea, Ferdinand (Brown 61), Evans, Evra (Fabio 61); Gibson, Scholes (Tosic 61), Anderson (Giggs 76), Nani; Rooney (Owen 61), Berbatov (Macheda 76).

Goals: Rooney 8, Nani 28, Owen 85

Malaysian XI: Marlias; Mazlizam (Azmi Muslim 74), Zamani (Gurusamy 67), Zafuan (Ahmad 80), Asraruddin; Rahim (Mat Abu 88), Rohidan (Bunyamin 63), Kunalan (Muhymeen 67), Yahyah (Talaha 80), Indra Putra (Bakhtiar 80); Zaquan (Kadir 80).

Goals: Yahyah 45, 52