Cambridge manager Mark Bonner singled out the “outstanding” performance of Gassan Ahadme following their 2-0 victory over Fleetwood.
The U’s, who only avoided the drop on the final day last season, made it two wins from two with goals from new signing Ahadme and stalwart Paul Digby the difference.
“Gassan Ahadme has started brilliantly, two in two and his performances have been outstanding,” Bonner said.
“He’s showing people exactly why we wanted him here for a few years. Our test for him is to see how consistent he can be at that level.
“It will be a tough ask but he really does set the tempo for us.
“It was a brilliant performance from Paul Digby, he deserved the goal. He made really hard runs to catch up with attacks and to come back and defend.”
Despite the professional performance, The U’s boss is still not getting ahead of himself and continues to demand more from his players.
“We were a threat all afternoon, defended well when we had to and thought we might have actually done better in terms of our goal return.
“To go in ahead was great but we were probably a bit frustrated we didn’t go in further ahead.
“We defended well in the second half. We’ve been working on set plays a lot and they’re going to be big for us this year as long as we capitalise on them.
“We did and it put us in a good position with a half hour left to be in control of the game to some extent. So we put ourselves in a really strong position.”
On the other hand hosts Fleetwood rarely looked threatening, and manager Scott Brown admitted they needed to go back to what they do best in order to keep clean sheets.
Brown said: “Disappointed obviously with the result. I take full responsibility for that one, what we’ve worked on in pre-season didn’t come off so we need to get back to doing what we do best.
“It’s being that horrible team doing what we do best and keeping clean sheets, making us hard to play through.
“We were maybe a little bit open today and the game plan probably wasn’t followed through as well as we possibly could do.
“I think the first 13, 14 minutes we controlled the game well and then we started to mix and match.
“Listen as I say, I’ve got to take this one on the head. The lads have given us a lot in pre-season but now we need to bounce back and they’ll be a lot of changes that’s for sure.
“We need to make sure we win games, we win our battles, we win individual battles, we’re first to the ball and today we weren’t that.”
Wales make history while Scotland miss out on Euro 2025
Wales reached a major women's football tournament for the first time after beating the Republic of Ireland 2-1 in the second leg of their Euro 2025 qualification play-off on Tuesday.
The match was watched by a crowd of 25,832 at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin, following a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Cardiff last Friday.
Owing to the magnitude of what was at stake, the return fixture started as a cagey affair, though the hosts had the better openings.
The match remained goalless until the fifth minute of the second half, when Hannah Cain netted a penalty to put Wales one up. Substitute Carrie Jones got another 12 minutes later to put the visitors in dreamland.
While Anna Patten's late header set up a nervy finish for Wales, they were able to hold out and create history.
Elsewhere, Norway confirmed their place at next year's tournament in Switzerland with a 7-0 aggregate victory over Northern Ireland.
Goals from Caroline Graham Hansen, Frida Maanum and Synne Jensen helped Norway to a 3-0 second-leg victory in Oslo, having won 4-0 in the reverse fixture.
Scotland, however, will miss a third successive major tournament after falling to a 2-0 defeat away to Finland in their decisive play-off match.
Pedro Martinez Losa's side had 67% of the ball and rattled off 20 attempts on goal, but were unable to find the back of the net following a goalless draw in the first leg.
Finally, Sweden thrashed Serbia 6-0 at home to complete an 8-0 aggregate victory, emphatically booking their spot at next year's European Championships.
First-half goals from Filippa Angeldal, Kosovare Asllani and a brace from Stina Blackstenius had the game over as a contest, with Hanna Bennison and Anna Anvegard adding extras in the second period.
AC Milan 6-1 Sassuolo: Chukwueze brace powers Rossoneri into Coppa Italia last eight
AC Milan made light work of Serie B side Sassuolo as Samuel Chukwueze scored twice in a 6-1 thrashing to reach the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia on Tuesday.
The last-16 clash was already over as a contest by the 23rd minute after Chukwueze's brace, along with goals from Tijjani Reijnders and Rafael Leao handed Milan a 4-0 lead at San Siro.
Davide Calabria added their fifth 11 minutes after the interval, though Samuele Mulattieri managed a consolation three minutes later, before Tammy Abraham rounded off the win in the 61st minute.
Chukwueze opened the scoring in the 12th minute when a Reijnders ball over the top put him through one-on-one with Giacomo Satalino, and after his first effort hit the upright he tapped in the rebound.
Reijnders drilled home from outside the area five minutes later and Chukwueze netted his second in the 21st minute, curling beyond the reach of Satalino after an Abraham lay-off.
A no-look pass from Ruben Loftus-Cheek freed Leao to score two minutes later before Christian Pulisic's lofted cross bounced off the post and Calabria reacted quickest to convert in the second half.
Mulattieri's effort squirmed under Lorenzo Torriani to finally give Sassuolo something to cheer about, but Abraham finished off the rout, tucking his finish around Satalino just past the hour.
Data Debrief: Rampant Rossoneri
Milan's victory came by an impressive scoreline, though the underlying stats suggest the 6-1 win was somewhat flattering on the home side's performance.
Indeed, the home side accumulated just 1.89 expected goals (xG) from their 15 attempts, but the quality of finishing proved too much for Sassuolo to handle.
Bayern Munich 0-1 Bayer Leverkusen: Neuer off as Tella header defeats 10-man hosts
Ten-man Bayern Munich were dumped out of the DFB Pokal following a 1-0 defeat by reigning champions Bayer Leverkusen at Allianz Arena.
Nathan Tella's second-half strike proved the difference as Xabi Alonso's side booked their place in the quarter-finals.
The hosts were reduced to 10 men after just 17 minutes, when Manuel Neuer received the first red card of his career after bringing down Jeremie Frimpong just outside the box.
Despite the numerical disadvantage, Vincent Kompany's side created the better chances during the first half, with Kingsley Coman, Konrad Laimer and Leon Goretzka going close.
However, the visitors broke through against the run of play in the 69th minute, when Tella nodded in from Alex Grimaldo's cross.
Michael Olise almost snatched a dramatic equaliser with a curling effort in stoppage time, but Leverkusen survived to maintain their title defence.
Data Debrief: Nine in a row for Leverkusen and Alonso
Bayern had won each of their five previous DFB Pokal matches against the defending champions.
However, that streak ended here as they have now suffered successive eliminations after home defeats (also losing to Freiburg in April 2023) for the first time in their history.
As for Leverkusen, they have now won their last nine DFB Pokal matches and kept clean sheets in their last five - both their longest such streaks in the competition since at least 2005-06.
Meanwhile, Alonso has won all nine of his DFB Pokal matches as a coach. Only two coaches have enjoyed longer undefeated starts in the competition this millennium - Louis van Gaal and Pep Guardiola (both in the first 10).
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