STEVE McCLAREN made a statement by naming Mark Viduka in Middlesbrough's starting line-up but it was Atletico Madrid striker Fernando Torres who looked the complete striker last night.

Worryingly for Boro, with just nine days to go before the Premiership opener, the Spanish international looked a class above in a pre-season friendly lit up by the La Liga outfit's fitness and movement.

As well as scoring the opening goal, Torres was too quick for defender Ugo Ehiogu after the interval and was fouled on the edge of the area in the build up to Atletico's second.

And, while all the pre-match talk centred around Boro's insistence that Aussie front-man Viduka is going nowhere this summer, it was Atletico's powerful forward who added more weight to his ever increasing price-tag.

Torres, courted by a number of English clubs but none willing to match Atletico's massive valuation of over £30m, looked the part with the ball at his feet and took just five minutes to open the scoring.

The 21-year-old timed his run into the box to perfection and struck Martin Petrov's cut back beyond Mark Schwarzer with a low, first-time, right-foot shot.

Viduka, mentioned all week as a target for Newcastle, had one clear cut chance before making way at the same time as £7.5m Aiyegbeni Yakubu was introduced as a substitute for his home bow.

The clock is ticking towards the Premiership opener at home to Liverpool, when Bolo Zenden is due to make his Riverside return, and improvements and additions need to be made.

With the exception of possibly Yakubu starting for either Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink or Viduka, and Ray Parlour coming in for Doriva, McClaren fielded his strongest team last night.

Spaniard Gaizka Mendieta made his first home appearance since rupturing knee ligaments ten months ago, but Boro know fresh midfield faces are essential if they are to cope with the strains of a push in European competition this season.

Throughout the first half Boro were too static for their own good and the supporters had been hoping to see a few more signs of encouragement with only Sunday's friendly with Espanyol left as full match preparation.

There were a couple of long-range efforts before half-time from Doriva but neither failed to trouble Leo Franco in the Atletico goal.

Viduka's effort five minutes after the restart, when Franco stopped the forward's volley from crossing the line at the second attempt, marked the start of slight development in Boro's play. And Ehiogu's downward header into Franco's hands further highlighted the point.

But Antonio Lopez' outstanding free-kick just before the hour, after Ehiogu had hauled down Torres, increased Atletico's advantage.

Subsitute Szilard Nemeth, who also hit the post, struck three minutes from time from 15 yards to reduce the arrears but Torres had already done the damage.

Meanwhile, Massimo Maccarone and Malcolm Christie both had to pull out of the 3-0 second-string defeat at Whitby with soreness.

* Rio Ferdinand bore the brunt of more obscene chanting from his own supporters to sour Manchester United's 6-1 demolition of Royal Antwerp.

The outcry over Ferdinand's failure to commit his long-term future to Old Trafford has dogged United's pre-season programme and after suffering at Clyde, Peterborough and in the Far East, there was more misery for the former Leeds man in the Bosuil Stadium.

That, and late injuries to Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney took the gloss off a comfortable United victory which saw Ruud van Nistelrooy make a welcome return to form with a first-half hat-trick. Paul Scholes, Ronaldo and Darren Fletcher scored the others.

Result: Middlesbrough 1 Atletico Madrid 2.

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