Frenchman Anthony Martial was able to maintain his perfect scoring record in pre-season this summer after he was on target for Manchester United in the 3-1 win over Premier League rivals Crystal Palace. The Palace game was part of the pre-season friendlies lined up by Manchester United ahead of the new season. Martial had a record of two goals in two games before the game against Crystal Palace.

Martial has seized the opportunity to lead the line for Manchester United on their pre-season tour of Asia and Australia in the absence of Cristiano Ronaldo. Portuguese superstar Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United this summer for a club in the Champions League. To this effect, he was absent for the club’s tour of Australia and Asia though the official statement was that the ex-Sporting Lisbon and Real Madrid attacker missed out due to a family reason.

French international Martial has been the biggest beneficiary of Ronaldo’s absence with the ex-AS Monaco star keen to rebuild his career after a failed loan spell at Spanish team Sevilla during the second half of last season. He opened the scoring during the win over the Eagles on Tuesday to take his pre-season tally to three goals in three games. Martial had earlier scored in the 4-0 win over Liverpool in Thailand and the 4-1 comeback victory over Melbourne Victory in Australia.

Martial was responsible for the only goal of the first half against the Eagles. The English duo of Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho then added further goals in the second half to edge the Red Devils 3-0 ahead. Joel Ward scored a consolation goal for Crystal Palace in the final quarter of the game to reduce the deficit to two goals. Manchester United ended the game with ten men following the dismissal of substitute defender Will Fish on 84 minutes.