(Football news) Manchester United progressed to the knockout stage of the UEFA Europa League with a 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford. After the recent controversy involving Cristiano Ronaldo, the 37 year old was reinstated in the starting lineup and scored the third goal of the game in the 81st minute in what was a dominating performance by the Red Devils. Diogo Dalot scored the opening goal of the game with a magnificent header in the 44th minute, his second goal for Manchester United so far while Marcus Rashford doubled the advantage with a powerful header in the 65th minute.

Manchester United remain in 2nd place in Group E as Real Sociedad defeated Omonia Nicosia 2-0, which means that the Red Devils must defeat their Spanish opponents by at least a two goal margin in their next match on November 3rd in order to top their group and avoid a two leg tie against a third place Champions League side in February. In team news, Erik ten Hag made four changes in his starting lineup with Cristiano Ronaldo, Victor Lindelof, Tyrell Malacia and Alejandro Garnacho included in the starting lineup instead of Marcus Rashford, Raphael Varane, Luke Shaw and Jadon Sancho. 

Speaking after the match, Erik ten Hag said “It was OK. Of course, you hope you score in the first 30 minutes so it took a bit longer, but we deserved that goal. In the second half we scored two more good goals from open play and I'm pleased with the clean sheet because we gave nothing away. It was a focused win. Our occupation of space in the box could still be done better, the second and third goals we did that well. We occupied positions and scored." 

Speaking to BT Sport, Marcus Rashford said “We have to go there and win by two goals. We have to score goals but defend well. It is going to be a tough game but I'm looking forward to the challenge. It's taken a lot of hard work to adapt and change, but we're getting there." The result means that Manchester United have now won each of their previous four games in the Europa League group stage, their longest run since winning six consecutive games between November 2016 and October 2017. 

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