Rusty Liverpool and United slip to defeat

Manchester United's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, and his Liverpool counterpart, Gérard Houllier, were left to search for consolation in the performances of individual players after seeing their sides lose friendly matches away to two of Europe's leading clubs. United went down 2-1 to Ajax in Amsterdam. whiole Liverpool were outclassed by Real Madrid in Spain, losing 2-0.

Ferguson could draw encouragement from the performances of his record signing, Rio Ferdinand, and the England captain, David Beckham, in the Netherlands. Ferdinand looked composed for an hour before he was replaced by Wes Brown while Beckham showed no ill effects from the foot problem which plagued him during the World Cup this summer.

Other than that though, there was little cheer for United, who looked rusty as their full squad had their first pre-season outing. They certainly could not match Ajax's fluidity in attack, Victor Sikora and Andy van der Meyde causing particular problems.

Sikora, who spurned a summer move to Fulham, opened the scoring in the first half when he reacted quickly and volleyed home from close range after Tomas Galasek's free-kick had been deflected into his path by Ruud van Nistelrooy. Zlatan scores a second 15 minutes from time when he advanced on to a long through ball and stroked his shot past Fabien Barthez. Paul Scholes, a half-time substitute, pulled one back almost immediately when he volleyed home a Ryan Giggs cross, but Ajax held on for a victory that took them two points behind four-team tournament leaders Barcelona and left United lagging in last.

The visitors had already received a couple of scares before Sikora gave Ajax the lead six minutes before the break. With Van der Meyde creating problems on both flanks with his dribbling skills, United were forced to defend more crosses than they would have liked.

Goals from Luis Figo and Javier Portillo earned Real Madrid their comfortable win over Liverpool in the opening match of a four-team pre-season tournament at the Bernabeu.

Figo threaded in a shot from outside the area five minutes before half-time for the first goal and the substitute striker Portillo settled the game with a neat finish on the hour mark.

Both sides were missing key players, with Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard absent for Liverpool and Real resting the likes of Raul, Fernando Hierro and Roberto Carlos. Real were still able to call on Zinedine Zidane and Figo, however, and the past and present world players of the year provided the game's only quality.

Liverpool struggled from the start. Figo provided Zidane with the first chance for Real 20 minutes in, crossing for the French midfielder to send a shot against the post. Liverpool's Polish keeper Jerzy Dudek pushed another Zidane effort over the bar a few minutes later and also saved long-range shots from Savio and Figo before the latter opened the scoring.