Rooney gets out of funk, as Man U advances
Thanks to captain’s hat trick, United returns to group stage
BRUGES, BELGIUM— Wayne Rooney ended a 10-game scoring drought by grabbing a hat trick in Manchester United’s 4-0 win at Club Brugge that eased the English team into the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.
United won 7-1 on aggregate and returned to Europe’s premier competition after a one-year absence.
Rooney’s confidence grew after putting United ahead in Belgium in the 20th with a lobbed finish over the diving goalkeeper, his first club goal since April 4.
The England captain added more goals in the 49th and 57th minutes as Brugge’s defence was repeatedly opened up.
Rooney wasted a great chance for his fourth goal before Ander Herrera wrapped up the win in the 63rd. Javier Hernandez missed a penalty in the 81st to make it 5-0 after being handed the chance by Rooney, United’s usual penalty taker.
England will have four teams in Thursday’s group-stage draw.
“It was a big disappointment last year not to challenge in (the Champi- ons League),” Rooney said. “It was vital we went through any way we could.”
United missed out on the Champions League last season as a consequence of its dreadful season in 201314 under David Moyes, the successor to long-time manager Alex Ferguson.
Louis van Gaal has managed to restore England’s most successful club to Europe’s top competition at the first attempt — albeit through the playoffs — as Brugge proved a soft touch on Wednesday.
Rooney’s scoring form has been the biggest concern for United at the start of this season, although he insisted it was only a matter of time before he got back among the goals.
“To be honest, if I didn’t have a strong character, maybe it would have affected me,” Rooney said of his poor scoring form. “I wasn’t worried. It is early days and when the chances came I took them.” When he was put through by Memphis Depay midway through the first half, it was the first genuine one-on-one chance Rooney had found himself in all season. And he took it well.
As Sinan Bolat dived at the feet of Rooney, the striker nonchalantly dinked the ball over the Turkish goalkeeper and into the net to end a
“To be honest, if I didn’t have a strong character, maybe it would have affected me.” WAYNE ROONEY ON HIS RECENT POOR RUN OF FORM
wait of 878 minutes for a goal. After celebrating with teammates, Rooney kissed his hands and thrust his arms into the air.
With Brugge now needing three goals just to force extra time, the hosts were going to leave spaces at the back for United to exploit.
Depay — a scorer of two classy goals in the first leg — wasted a great chance before halftime and it was left to Rooney to finish the hosts off.
The striker finished a great team move involving Depay and Herrera with a simple sidefooted finish for his second goal, and completed his hat trick with a low shot underneath Bolat after a reverse pass from Juan Mata.
Rooney passed up two chances to complete a four-goal haul. First, he saw Bolat tip aside a chipped finish after racing through one on one and then handed penalty-taking duties to substitute Hernandez after Oscar Duarte handled a cross from Rooney.
Hernandez’s standing foot slipped as he was about to strike the ball and he sent it wide of the post.
By that time, Herrera had run onto a fine pass from Bastian Schweinsteiger, another substitute, to slot home for the fourth goal at Jan Breydelstadion.
Meanwhile, a club with a very different pedigree than United also advanced.
Formed six years ago and in just its third season in European competition, FC Astana became the first team from Kazakhstan to qualify for the group stage after drawing 1-1 at APOEL Nicosia for a 2-1 aggregate win.
Nemanja Maksimovic’s goal in the 84th proved decisive for Astana, a team backed by Kazakhstan’s sovereign-wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna and the most remote of all the clubs in the group stage.
Others teams to qualify for Thursday’s group-stage draw were Bayer Leverkusen, CSKA Moscow and BATE Borisov of Belarus.
Leverkusen beat Lazio 3-0 to advance 3-1on aggregate and leave Italy with only two teams in the Champions League again. An 85th-minute goal from Ahmed Musa clinched CSKA Moscow a 3-1 win over Sporting Lisbon and a 4-3 victory on aggregate, while BATE advanced on away goals after losing 2-1at Partizan Belgrade for 2-2 overall.