|
Theo Walcott scored the only goal as Arsenal beat Wolfsburg 1-0 to win the Emirates Cup for the first time in five years -- with Petr Cech keeping a clean sheet on his first appearance at his new home. England international Walcott has reportedly agreed a new contract with the Gunners and the 26-year-old hit the winner in a low-key 1-0 victory despite lacking a cutting edge in the first half. Having hammered Lyon 6-0 24 hours earlier, Arsenal were favourites to win their own friendly competition. Saturday's man of the match Mesut Ozil was the only player retained against the Bundesliga runners-up as Arsene Wenger rotated his starting line-up ahead of next weekend's Community Shield meeting with Chelsea. Earlier in the Emirates Cup, Villarreal made it two wins from two after they beat Lyon 2-0. Bruno Soriano struck a penalty home after half an hour when Dylan Mboumbouni brought down Javier Espinosa. Then, in the second half, a superb pass from Gerard Moreno let Leo Baptistao through and he dinked the ball over Mathieu Gorgelin. A Romelu Lukaku hat trick paced Everton to a 3-1 win against Hearts in the teams' friendly at Tynecastle. The Belgian converted a penalty in both the first and second half and added a 35th minute goal from a Seamus Coleman assist that ended up being the match winner. Hearts were the early leaders, as Callum Paterson put the Scottish Premier League team in front, but three unanswered goals from Everton sealed their fate. Leighton Baines and Bryan Oviedo returned to action after being sidelined with injuries, as Everton boss Roberto Martinez indicated they would. Elsewhere, Newcastle new-boy Georginio Wijnaldum got himself on the scoresheet again, but the Premier League side were held to a 2-2 draw with Sheffield United. Wijnaldum, a summer arrival from PSV, put Steve McClaren's side in front in the first half at Bramall Lane on Sunday after a shot from Papiss Cisse, but Marc McNulty had levelled early in the second half. Substitute Siem de Jong got on the end of Jack Colback's corner with 11 minutes left in the game, but Newcastle were pegged back as full-back Kieron Freeman hammered a stunning shot home from outside the penalty area. Crystal Palace were beaten in the final of the Cape Town Cup as Fredy Montero struck twice to earn Sporting Lisbon a 2-0 victory. A game of few chances saw Montero come off the bench on the hour and immediately struck a free kick under the body of new Palace goalkeeper Alex McCarthy. Rui Patricio had to be at his best to keep out James McArthur and Scott Dann, but Sporting doubled their lead when Islam Slimani released Montero to slot past McCarthy again. Mike Grella broke the deadlock in the 56th minute with a curling shot just from just outside the box to hand the New York Red Bulls a 2-1 victory over Portuguese club Benfica on Sunday night.
Pizzi scored for Benfica in the seventh minute in the International Champions Cup game, and Bradley Wright-Phillips tied it up in the 33rd.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
|
