Manchester United achieved an extremely valuable victory in their fight to advance to the elimination phase of the Champions League in the official debut of interim manager Michael Carrick. This happened after the bug star of the team – Cristiano Ronaldo, opened the scoring in the visit of Villarreal with a goal in the 78th minute, while in the last minute of regular time Jaden Sancho sealed the success of the visit to Spain.
The game was delayed by ten minutes, because there was a problem in the judges’ communication system. In the end, the clash in Spain started as planned. After five minutes of play came the first accurate shot in the match, after Gomez got enough time to adjust the ball on his left foot in the penalty area and shoot, but there De Gea intervened well and tipped to the side. The pressure of the Spanish club continued, and in the 9th minute De Gea had to intervene again.
In the 26th minute, the goalkeeper of the hosts Ruli kicked the ball to the right near the penalty area of United. There Pino regained control and returned to Gomez, whose instant strike was deflected with one hand by De Gea. In the 29th minute Sancho crossed dangerously in the penalty area of Villarreal, but Raul Albiol cleared just before Ronaldo had a chance to play with the ball.
The second half started with a situation for United, but Fred’s shot was easily saved by Ruli. In the 60th minute David De Gea had to save his team from a certain goal. The ball landed in Manu Trigueros, who was completely alone in the penalty area and made a powerful shot, but De Gea made a brilliant plunge to the right and deflected the Spaniard’s shot.
12 minutes before the end, the hosts made a fatal mistake when passing the ball at the back. Fred took advantage of this, closed on a Villarreal midfielder and forced him to mistakenly pass to Ronaldo in front of the penalty area. The Portuguese saw that the goalkeeper of the hosts came out far enough from his goalline and with a lob shot opened the score in favor of the English team.
In the last minute of the regular time Manchster scored a second goal. Juan Foyth of Villarreal made a mistake in United’s half, Fred again took the ball and passed to McTominay. He combined with Cristiano on the left, who went ahead for Marcus Rashford. Bruno Fernandes and Jaden Sancho rushed forward, and the Portuguese continued with a pass to the right for Sancho, who with a powerful shot and with the help of the crossbar sealed the success of the “Red Devils”.
Manchester United has 10 points and this guarantees them a place in the next phase. Villarreal have 7 and still hope to secure a place in the next phase in the last round, when they will face Atalanta. The Italians are in third place with 6points after thrilling 3-3 draw with Young Boys.
