Late goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Jadon Sancho were enough to earn an underwhelming Manchester United a 2-0 victory at Villarreal that guarantees them a spot in the Champions League knockout stages.
United entered the contest knowing victory would see them through to the last 16 with one group match left to play, but in Michael Carrick's first game as interim manager, United looked short of attacking ideas at the Estadio de la Ceramica.
The home side had the better chances and United goalkeeper David de Gea bailed his side out with several fine saves, the best of which denied Manu Trigueros a goal.
But out of nowhere, a poor pass from Villarreal keeper Geronimo Rulli was miscontrolled by Etienne Capoue and seized upon by Ronaldo, who lifted the ball over the stranded Rulli to give United the lead in the 78th minute.
As the home side pressed for an equaliser, the visitors countered in the 90th minute, with Sancho hammering home to put the game to bed and send United atop Group F with 10 points - three ahead of Villarreal, who can no longer catch Carrick's side due to their inferior head-to-head record.
Elsewhere, Chelsea have claimed a thumping 4-0 victory over Juventus, thanks to goals from homegrown trio Trevoh Chalobah, Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi, and a fourth by Timo Werner to top Group H and cruise into the knockout stage.
Defender Chalobah, 22, smacked the ball into the net past the flailing arms of Wojciech Szczesny in the 25th minute, after centreback Toni Rudiger set him up from a Hakim Ziyech corner.
A video check dismissed calls for handball against Rudiger.
James, 21, showed superb technique to angle a shot into the lefthand corner of the goal in the 55th and barely three minutes later, 21-year-old Hudson-Odoi scored from a layoff by another Academy graduate, Ruben Loftus-Cheek.
Before the final whistle, fellow substitute Werner put the icing on the cake, sending the ball home from a Ziyech cross.
Beaten 1-0 at Turin in September, European champions Chelsea made the Italians look ordinary, firing 20 shots to four and earning 12 corners against three for the visitors.
Juventus had already qualified for the knockout stage, but the result dropped them to second in the group, level on 12 points with Chelsea, with one round of fixtures to play.
Reuters
