A late rally by Manchester United led by the one and only Mr. Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo secured Manchester United's qualification into the knockout stage of the Champions League as the Reds downed Villarreal 0-2.
Jadon Sancho got the second of the night with an emphatically taken effort following a swift counterattackimg move by the visitors to seal the game at the dearth.
It was a victory that cemented top spot for th former European Champions going into the draws for the knockout stage, leaving Villarreal to battle it out for second place with Atalanta, who drew 3-3 agant Young Boys, who are bottom of the group.
Interim manager, Michael Carrick was taking charge of his first game at the helms of affairs following the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after their embarrassing 4-1 drubbing in the hands of Watford in the league over the weekend and he wouldn't have wished for a better outcome to the game, despite an unimpressive first 45 minutes.
In a bold move by the former England international, he made four changes to the team that started against the Hornets, prominently dropping Bruno Fernandes to the bench as he looked to give United a fresh start to life.
The dropping of Fernandes definitely raised a lot of eyebrows, giving that the Portuguese has created the most chances this season, both in the league and in Europe. Donny van de Beek was handed a rare start that was his third start this season in place of Fernandes.
It was a game that had all to play for in it, in what was a rematch of last season's Europa League final, which saw Unai Emery's Villarreal Triumph on penalty shootout.
The visitors were definitely low on confidence following their recent run of poor form and this was evident as the hosts took the game to them in the early exchanges.
Thanks to David de Gea, Manchester United máy have been down by two goals at half time after he put up fines saves to deny Moi Gomez and then, Manu Trigueros in the closing stages of the first interval.
Trigueros was again denied somehow by De Gea just before the hour mark, turning his effort out for a corner.
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