Another Cristiano Ronaldo genius catapulted Manchester United into the knockout stages of the Champions League, giving interim manager Michael Carrick a 2-0 win at Villarreal on Tuesday.
The Portuguese star scored his fifth goal in the group stage when he masterfully lifted the ball over Argentine goalkeeper Gerónimo Rulli to break the parity.
The play of the goal was precipitated by a failure of the hosts when trying to get the ball from the bottom. After receiving from Rulli, Etienne Capoue did not know how to handle the ball well before the siege of Fred, who yielded for Cristiano’s Vaseline.
Jadon Sancho put final figures at 90, his first goal since joining United last summer after a transfer that cost 100 million dollars. In a counterattack action, the 20-year-old forward finished with a saber that hit the bottom of the crossbar.
It was United’s first game since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking on Sunday, prompted by a series of poor results that bottomed out with a humiliating 4-1 loss to Watford on Saturday in the English Premier League.
Carrick, one of Solskjaer’s assistants, was in charge as an interim and immediately made his mark on the team by removing Bruno Fernandes from the starting lineup and making room for Donny van de Beek.
United offered a display of good trade, but of little brilliance. Cristiano was once again the savior by scoring his 140th goal in the tournament. The Portuguese has scored in each of the five group stage matches this edition.
Meanwhile, Villarreal deserved more luck after exercising a clear dominance in the first half. But the interventions of goalkeeper David de Gea drowned out the goal cry of the Spanish team several times.
The victory left United on top with 10 points, three more than Villarreal five ahead of Atalanta. The Italian club later faced the Swiss group Young Boys.
The “Yellow Submarine” will play the pass to eighth on the last date, when they have a visit to Atalanta in Bergamo.
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