Man Utd closes out Asia tour with win

Beijing:

A Ryan Giggs hat-trick and two goals from Michael Owen helped Manchester United finish off its preseason Asian tour with a fourth consecutive win on Sunday.

The 8-2 win over Hangzhou Greentown in eastern China, south of Shanghai, comes after earlier victories over FC Seoul, and two against Malaysia. The second game in Kuala Lumpur was scheduled on short notice after hotel bombings in Jakarta forced the club to cancel its match in Indonesia.

Dimitar Berbatov, Zoran Tosic and Nani also scored for United, which led 4-0 at halftime. Brazilian Valdo and substitute Wang Hongyou scored late goals for Hangzhou.

The English champions played in Hangzhou without captain Gary Neville, who flew home for treatment on a groin strain before the Seoul game on Friday.

Manchester United maintained its popularity in Asia despite the departures of winger Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid and striker Carlos Tevez to Manchester City.

China's population of 1.3 billion people is a huge potential market for United. Sunday's game was the club's fifth in greater China in the past 10 years.

Last month, United signed a five-year deal with Aigo, which will make and sell co-branded digital cameras, multimedia players and data storage devices for the club around the world, and mobile phone handsets in China.