NEW ERA : MAN U GLADDEN FANS HEART, BEAT VILLARREAL TO QUALIFY FOR ROUND OF 16 AS CHELSEA REMAINS UNASSAILABLE
By Sakiru Olopade
Against all odds, Manchester United proved many soccer pundits wrong last night when they surprisingly thrashed Villarreal by 2 goals to nill to advance into the last 16 of the Champions League.
With Michael Carrick in charge of the team as interim manager was saddled with an onerous task of leading the Red Devils in their fifth champion’s league group game even with the morale of the players at a very low-ebb but the interim manager decided to do something different, fielding players who have not had fair share of playing time, players like Alex Telles, Danny Vande beek,Jardon Sancho, Fred and Scott Mc Tominy in a dicey encounter.
Though, not a spectacular performance from the United as the home side was on rampage but thanks to David De Gea who stood between them and the goal with the Red Devils on few occasions proved to be a threat to the Villarreal defence.
The goal that broke the camel’s back came in the 77th minute when Cristiano Ronaldo cashed – in on the goalkeeper’s error to put his side in front with his 799th senior career goal.
Sancho, made it two goals in the 90th minute to send United fans into frenzy with the 1st win from the 1st game of Michael Carrick as the interim manager after the sack of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer after the embarrassing 4-1 loss to Watford last weekend.
In the meantime, Chelsea continued its blistering form this season with the four -nill thrashing of Juventus at the Stamford Bridge to move to the knock -out stage of the Champions League.
Thomas Tuchel’s side left no one in doubt about their superb form, winning 10 matches without a defeat were determined to demolish Juventus which they successfully did in a grand style, moving to the top of group H with one game left.