SHANGHAI, July 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan star Shinji Kagawa bagged his first goal for Manchester United here on Wednesday, inspiring the Red Devils to beat Shanghai Shenhua 1-0 at the Shanghai Stadium .
Kagawa,who has joined from German champions Borussia Dortmund, breaking the deadlock on 68 minutes when he collected Bebe's brilliant cross to find the net despite a dodgy first-touch.
"Kagawa was man of the match and I thought he deserved that. He has settled in really well and is going to be a really good player for us. I was really impressed with him tonight," said United manager Alex Ferguson.
This was the only pre-season match for United in Asia this summer, which drew a crowd of 42,725 local fans.
Without former Chelsea stars Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, Shanghai was trying to take advantage on the counter-attack. Joel Griffith had a great look at the goal in the 42nd minute, but United goalkeeper Lindegaard thwarted the ball with his right elbow.
Asked about the reason for Drogba's absence, team manager Sergio Batista said:"Drogba is suffering from a back injury, and We need to save the energy for an very important match this weekend."
Shanghai just won four of their eighteen matches to lie 12th in the Chinese Super League. They will encounter league leaders Guangzhou on Saturday.
Although keeping possession for lengthy periods in first half's majority of time, the Red Devils just found one golden chance, made by Davide Petrucci on 23 minute.
The 20-year-old Italy attacker chipped a lovely ball over the Shanghai defence, but the new signing Nick Powell scuffed his left-footed effort wide of the far post.
Ferguson rang the changes at the beginning of the second half, bringing on Bebe to provide more offensive punch. The Portuguese forward split the Shenhua defence on 68 minutes and crossed from the left to assist Kagawa to seal the victory.