United are three and easy as Wolves win late

Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford netted fine goals as Manchester United beat Partizan Belgrade to seal their place in the Europa League knockout phase with two games to spare.

Having seen a threematch winning run come to a disappointing halt at Bournemouth at the weekend, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side rallied and secured a comprehensive Group L victory under the lights at Old Trafford.

Classy goals by Greenwood, Martial and Rashford gave free-flowing United a deserved 3-0 victory last night, ensuring progress to the Europa League round of 32 with games against Astana and AZ Alkmaar still to play.

Solskjaer can now experiment and rest key players in those fixtures – a boost with the energysapping 6,000-mile return trip to freezing Kazakhstan looming large later this month.

United midfielder Juan Mata said afterwards: “We needed a game like this, playing good football, scoring in the first half, enjoying ourselves.

“We are looking to finish first now. We are doing OK in European competition and we want to improve in the league.”

Meanwhile, Wolves took a step towards qualifying after Raul Jimenez struck in injury time to defeat Slovan Bratislava at Molineux.

It looked like Nuno Espirito Santo’s side would be frustrated by a superb goalkeeping display by Dominik Greif, who included a Ruben Neves penalty save at the start of the second half among his heroics.

However, his resistance was finally broken when Mexico attacker Jimenez headed home Adama Traore’s cross to give Wolves a 1-0 victory.