Juan Mata hailed the ‘incredible’ occasion at Optus Stadium as Manchester United edged Perth Glory 2-0.
With the game locked at 0-0 for more than an hour, England international striker Marcus Rashford broke through on 65 minutes and James Garner added a second in the closing stages in front of 50,206 vocal supporters.
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United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made 11 changes at half-time with Mata wearing the captain’s armband for the second-half team that broke down the Hyundai A-League Premiers.
The Red Devils spent the week in Western Australia and Spanish midfielder Mata explained it will be an experience that lives long in his memory.
“It was incredible. The stadium, the fans that we have here in Australia, and we are happy with the game also,” Mata said.
“We had fantastic facilities, the fans are incredible. For me, it’s the first time [in Australia] so I am happy to here and we are very grateful to all of our Australian fans.”
New signing Daniel James made a big impression during the first 45 minutes, winning player of the match on United’s social media channels.
After dazzling Optus Stadium with his pace and skills, the former Swansea City attacker paid tribute to the Australian fans.
“As soon as we came out here, the show they put on for us was amazing,” James said
“To see all of the fans that are out here, they’ve come from everywhere, they were great today. We put in a great performance, we should what we had been working on and that’s what we’ve done.
“We’ve had a great 10 days. In those 10 days we’ve been working on certain things that we’ve got to bring to the game.
“I think first half we had a few chances that we could have put away but we showed in the second half we are clinical.”
