Cristiano Ronaldo marked his return with a goal as Manchester United kept their Europa League last-16 hopes alive with a routine 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol.
Portugal star Ronaldo returned to the starting line-up at Old Trafford after being dropped for the draw at Chelsea following his refusal to appear as a late substitute against Tottenham.
A pair of headers from Diego Dalot and Marcus Rashford put United in control before Ronaldo wrapped up the points nine minutes from time and secured a top-two finish in Group E.
Erik ten Hag's side must now beat leaders Real Sociedad by two goals next week to usurp the LaLiga outfit at the group summit and avoid a trickier clash in the play-off knockout round.
United dominated the first half with over three-quarters of the possession while registering 13 shots on goal without reply.
Antony and Tyrell Malacia drew smart saves out of Maksym Koval, who also demonstrated brilliant reflexes to deny Ronaldo a tap-in from Bruno Fernandes' knockdown.
The hosts were almost punished as Rasheed Ibrahim was whiskers away from connecting with Patrick Kpozo's deep cross but they finally broke through in the dying moments of the opening period as Dalot powered home Christian Eriksen's inviting corner.
Ronaldo went close to doubling the lead when he fired narrowly over in the 58th minute before his close-range volley was disallowed for offside.
United did establish breathing space seven minutes later as a patient build-up culminated in Rashford brilliantly heading home Luke Shaw's centre to end a five-match scoreless streak.
Ronaldo was not to be denied and put the icing on the cake with nine minutes remaining, firing home at the second attempt after Koval had parried his initial header from Fernandes' cross.
Football rumours: Thomas Muller linked with move to Manchester United
What the papers say
Bayern Munich forward Thomas Muller has been linked with a move to Manchester United. According to The Sun – which cites German outlet Bild – the Red Devils are in the market to exploit the veteran Germany international’s lack of playing time since the arrival of Harry Kane, with a 2024 bid.
United are also reportedly interested in Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo. Metro, via Sky Germany, says Todibo is on the Old Trafford club’s radar for a January move, but they may need to compete with Tottenham for his services.
And The Sun, via ESPN and Corriere Dello Sport, reports Red Devils duo Jadon Sancho and Donny Van De Beek could both be sold to Juventus for as little as £26million.
Social media round-upPlayers to watch
Mason Greenwood: The Manchester United forward, who is currently on loan at Getafe, may yet play again at Old Trafford, according to Metro.
Matias Soule: Newcastle are leading a host of Premier League clubs in pursuit of the Juventus forward, reports Gazetta dello Sport.
New father Doncic exhausted after NBA-record run not enough for Mavs
Luka Doncic said he was simply exhausted after the Dallas Mavericks failed to capitalise on an NBA-record 30-point run in Saturday's "rollercoaster" defeat to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
A depleted Mavericks side found themselves facing a 24-point deficit at one stage, but Doncic played a talismanic role to drag his team back into contention.
Dallas took the lead with a 30-0 run in the fourth quarter, the best in the NBA in the PXP era (since 1996-97), which took them from 111-87 down to 117-111 up.
Doncic finished with a game-high 36 points while also adding 15 rebounds and 18 assists, but his terrific performance wasn't enough as the Thunder rallied again for a 126-120 victory.
Having played his part in a thrilling contest one day after becoming a father for the first time on Friday, Doncic struggled to hide his fatigue.
"It was the happiest day of my life with the baby, but then today's game was a big rollercoaster too," Doncic said after the game.
"I'm so sad we didn't win this game, but man, we gave a big, big effort. I was a little bit exhausted."
Doncic was frustrated by his finish to the game after committing two turnovers in the last 87 seconds, with the first the result of a travelling call which infuriated the four-time All-Star.
"My view is it probably was a travel, but those travels happen about, in my opinion, 20 times a game," he said.
"So a minute and a half to go, if you're going to call that travel for the first time in the game… you can't do that.
"I don't think so. I think those travels happen a lot of times in one game and the NBA doesn't call the travels, so I was really surprised."
The Mavericks are now 11-8 after suffering back-to-back defeats, and they will look to respond when they welcome the Utah Jazz to American Airlines Center on Wednesday.
Harry Maguire wants Man Utd to be more aggressive to achieve ambitions
Harry Maguire has warned Manchester United their need to be more aggressive if they are to achieve their ambitions for the season.
Erik ten Hag’s men slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Newcastle on Saturday evening – their third successive loss in all competitions against the Magpies – and were decidedly second-best until they very nearly snatched a point they really did not deserve amid a late rally.
England defender Maguire, who was one of their better players on the night, admitted as much in the wake of a disappointing display and called for a reaction against Chelsea at Old Trafford on Wednesday evening.
He told the club’s official website: “We know we’ve got to do better, we’ve got to play better, the team’s got to perform better.
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“We’ve got to play with a lot more intensity and tempo. We’ve got to win more duels – I feel that in the first half, we lost far too many duels. Every 50-50, we got beat in.
“We’ve got to be aggressive, we’ve got to play on the front foot, we’ve got to play at a big tempo and we just didn’t do that well enough tonight.”
Anthony Gordon’s 55th-minute strike ultimately settled the game at St James’ Park, although Kieran Trippier had earlier hit the crossbar with a fine free-kick.
The visitors thought they had snatched a draw at the death when substitute Antony’s shot was unwittingly deflected into the Magpies’ net by Maguire, but he was in an offside position and the flag went up swiftly to dash their hopes.
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Maguire, who played in both last weekend’s 3-0 win at Everton and the 3-3 Champions League draw at Galatasaray, said: “The boys are disappointed. I don’t think we played to our level.
“It’s been a tough week – three away games in six days – but we don’t use that as an excuse. We didn’t play well enough, especially in the first half.
“We grew into the game in the second half and maybe could have got the point. We put a lot of pressure on them in the last 10 or 15 minutes but it wasn’t enough and, in the end, you’ve got to say Newcastle deserved it.
“We allowed them to get into our box far too easily, so it’s something that we need to work on – all of us as a team.”
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