Solskjaer praises United’s ‘great bunch’ after win

CARDIFF: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer praised his Manchester United players after they gave him the perfect start to his reign with a 5-1 victory at Cardiff just days after Jose Mourinho was sacked.

Former United striker Solskjaer had just two days to prepare his players for his first match as caretaker manager.

“Football is easy if you’ve got good players,” the Norwegian interim manager told BT Sport. “They are a great bunch of players and their quality is unbelievable. I arrived on Wednesday night and only had Thursday and Friday with the players. Wayne Rooney texted me and gave me some advice -- so it must be down to him. He told me to make them play football, enjoy themselves and be Manchester United.”

MESSI ON TARGET

MADRID: Barcelona held off Atletico Madrid to ensure they will be three points clear at the top of La liga going into the winter break after beating a spirited Espanyol 2-0 at the Camp Nou on Saturday.

First-half goals from Ousmane Dembele and Lionel Messi were enough to move Ernesto Valverde’s side up to 37 points and keep them one step ahead of Atletico, who earlier drew level with Barca with a 1-0 win over Espanyol thanks to an Antoine Griezmann penalty. Sevilla drew 1-1 at Leganes on Sunday.

REAL LIFT CLUB WORLD CUP TITLE

ABUDHABI:REAL Madrid lifted the FIFA Club World Cup for a record fourth time on Saturday after thrashing local side Al Ain 4-1 in the final in Abu Dhabi with the help of impressive distance strikes in either half from midfielders Luka Modric and Marcos Llorente.

JUVE BEAT ROMA

MILAN:MARIO Mandzukic scored the only goal for Juventus as they beat Roma 1-0 on Saturday.