Club Bruges 0-4 Manchester United (agg 1-7): Wayne Rooney nets hat-trick to end 10-game goal drought and ensure Red Devils confirm place in Champions League group stage
Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney opened the scoring in the 20th minute to end his personal goal drought
Rooney doubled his side's lead on the night by tapping home from close range after fine play by Ander Herrera
He completed his hat-trick after a defence-splitting ball by United team-mate Juan Mata in the 57th minute
Herrera, who was making his first start of the season, scored a goal of his own in the 63rd minute
Javier Hernandez missed a second-half penalty after slipping on the Jan Breydel Stadium turf
Rooney had previously failed to score this season and netted just one away goal for his club this year
Louis van Gaal's side went into the second leg with a two-goal advantage thanks to Marouane Fellaini's late goal
The Red Devils will be in Pot Two for Thursday's Champions League draw
By IAN LADYMAN FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 20:34 GMT, 26 August 2015 | UPDATED: 23:37 GMT, 26 August 2015
From a hibernation that has lasted longer than some people would like to admit, the real Manchester United has emerged blinking in to the night.
Yes, this was a second leg of a qualifying tie all but put to bed at Old Trafford a week earlier and, yes, this was a game against the fifth best team in Belgium, a side playing without eight of its regular first team players.
That is, admittedly, the context of this result and this performance. Nevertheless those who follow this club will have recognised something of the swagger with which United put away Club Bruges here. They will have recognised the mobility of the play, the running off the ball, the passing and, of course, the clinical execution of chances.
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Manchester United's Wayne Rooney points at team-mate Memphis Depay to acknowledge the Dutchman's role in his 20th-minute opener
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Rooney looks up to the sky in celebration of his first goal of the season, while team-mates Depay and Juan Mata retreat back to their half
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Depay and Adnan Januzaj congratulate Rooney following the Englishman's crucial goal against Belgian outfit Club Bruges
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Rooney elected to chip onrushing Club Bruges goalkeeper Sinan Bolat following a delightful through pass by Depay
MATCH FACTS
CLUB BRUGES (4-1-3-2): Bolat 6; De Fauw 4, Castelletto 5, Duarte 5, De Bock 5; Claudemir 5; Vormer 5.5, Vazquez 5.5 (Vanaken 62mins, 6), Bolingoli Mbombo 6 (Cools 76, 6); De Sutter 6.5, Diaby 5.5 (Dierckx 63, 6)
Subs not used: Bruzzese, Meunier, De Smul, Oulare
Booked: Claudemir, Vormer
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-3-1): Romero 6; Darmian 6.5, Smalling 6.5, Blind 6.5, Shaw 7; Carrick 7, Herrera 7 (Hernandez 64, 6.5); Mata 6.5 (Young 62, 6), Januzaj 6 (Schweinsteiger 46, 7.5), Depay 7; Rooney 8
Subs not used: Johnstone, McNair, Schneiderlin, Fellaini
Goals: Rooney 20, 49, 57, Herrera 63
Booked: Herrera
MOM: Rooney
Referee: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (Spain)
Attendance: 29,000
Some will get carried away by this and the sensible, those who know their football, will not. A sterner test lies at Swansea in the Barclays Premier League on Sunday.
However, good football is good football and there was plenty of that from Louis van Gaal’s team at the Jan Breydel Stadium. Wayne Rooney, the scorer of three goals, will take many of the headlines. So too will the Spaniard Ander Herrera who overcame a dreadful start to play his part in the dismantling of the opposition that followed over the course of the night.
This, however, was a team performance that Van Gaal must, above all, use as a template. Too much of his team’s play during his time – this season and last – has been rigid and lacking in flexibility. If he really is to move the club back in the direction it needs to go in the manner in which it wishes to do so then he must take something from what he saw here.
Bruges, it must be said, were dreadful. Van Gaal had suggested on Tuesday that it was not impossible for a club from one of Europe’s smaller leagues to impact on this competition. Well, this year at least, it won’t be Michel Preud’homme’s team who began the tie brightly by scoring the opening goal at Old Trafford last week and then got progressively and dramatically worse.
On Wednesday night they were OK for 15 minutes, exerting some mild early pressure on a United team that began the night rather unsure about how to proceed, given the 3-1 lead they carried from the first game.
Soon, though, a pattern of vulnerability remerged. The Bruges right back Davy De Fauw was particularly wretched, for example, going to ground like someone who had forgotten to put the right shoes on. Some of his team-mates were not much better either.
United still had to take advantage of all this, though, and the manner in which they did so made for an entertaining night and at one stage in the second half they threatened to humiliate Bruges completely. Indeed it’s worth noting that United didn’t score beyond the 62nd minute, due in part to a hapless contribution from substitute Javier Hernandez, more of which later.
Midway through the first half, though, it was Rooney who scored to finish the tie off and it was a goal that owed much to the skill and awareness of Memphis Depay.
The young Dutchman didn’t have a perfect night. At times he needed to get his head up.
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Rooney taps into an empty net to score his second following a fine sidewards pass by Manchester United midfielder Ander Herrera
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Mata races to celebrate Rooney's third after the former Chelsea man claimed an assist for his captain's hat-trick goal
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On this occasion, though, Depay drifted in from the left marvellously and slid a lovely ball in to the penalty area to Rooney. De Fauw helped the United captain by lunging at, and missing, the ball but Rooney still finished nicely, lifting the ball over goalkeeper Sinan Bolat with his right foot.
After this, Bruges visibly wilted. They had threatened earlier as a United missing the central stability usually afforded them by the absent Bastian Schweinsteiger and Morgan Schneiderlin struggled a little.
Now, though, they knew they had nothing less to chase. In order to have any chance at all they needed to score first and they hadn’t.
A couple of chances – spurned by midfielder Claudemir and forward Abdoulay Diaby – did come their way just before the interval but United emerged for the second half to pick them to pieces in a devastating 17-minute spell.
Half-time substitute Schweinsteiger was fundamental to it but so too was Herrera, pushed forwards in to the hole left by the withdrawn Adnan Januzaj.
Rooney’s second and third goals were beautiful to watch. The first of the half, in the 49th minute, was constructed by Depay and Herrera, the second eight minutes later by Schweinsteiger, Herrera and Juan Mata. They were different goals but the principles of sharp, quick, short passing and clever movement were exactly the same and recognisable as classic United traits. It looked like five-a-side football and that, perhaps, is the greatest compliment that can be paid.
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Spanish midfielder Herrera, who was making his first start of the season, rounded off the scoring with 27 minutes left on the clock
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Summer signing Matteo Darmian shares a word with goalscorer Rooney after his captain's first goal of an impressive hat-trick
Rooney almost scored again, denied by Bolat when played clear, before Herrera finished his own night by sliding a sumptuous Schweinsteiger through ball underneath the goalkeeper.
With almost half an hour left, Bruges were in pieces and embarrassment beckoned.
United, though, dropped their levels slightly and were not helped by two hopeless Hernandez moments, a penalty miss and a scoop over the bar from just six yards.
The Mexican’s night was a bad one and his future remains unclear. That, however, was only the negative for Van Gaal.
His team looked like Manchester United again here and the only unknown this morning is how long it will last.
CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEEDINGS AHEAD OF THURSDAY'S GROUP STAGE DRAW
POT ONE: Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Benfica, Paris Saint-Germain, Zenit St Petersburg, PSV Eindhoven
POT TWO: Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Porto, Arsenal, Valencia, Manchester City, Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen
POT THREE: Lyon, Dynamo Kiev, Olympiacos, Galatasaray, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla, CSKA Moscow
POT FOUR: Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmo, Astana, Bate Borisov
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Second-half substitute Javier Hernandez slipped over on the Jan Breydel Stadium turf as he stepped up to take a penalty
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Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal stares at his assistant Ryan Giggs after Hernandez's spot-kick miss
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The Mexico international wasted another chance to add to his side's lead by blazing the ball over the woodwork with minutes to go
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Manchester United captain Rooney attempts to get the ball under control as he is challenged by Club Bruges' Davy De Fauw
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Manchester United midfielder Herrera receives a yellow card from fellow countryman Antonio Mateu Lahoz after just 13 minutes
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Club Bruges forward Abdoulay Diaby lays on the floor after squandering a golden opportunity to cancel out Rooney's opener
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Manchester United goalkeeper Sergio Romero dives to the floor as he stops Diaby from getting his side back into the game
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Manchester United playmaker Depay shows his disappointment after failing to double his side's lead before the half-time interval
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England international Luke Shaw attempts to start an attack during the first half of Manchester United's second-leg clash in Belgium
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Club Bruges midfielder Claudemir pulls Herrera's shirt as the former Athletic Bilbao runs forward with the ball
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The Jan Breydel Stadium scoreboard displays the minute of Rooney's goal in the Champions League play-off encounter
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Van Gaal changed Saturday's side, with Herrera and Michael Carrick in for Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger
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Rooney leads the likes of Carrick and Daley Blind out of the tunnel ahead of what proved to be a comfortable 4-0 win for United
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Van Gaal is all smiles as he is photographed along with his assistants Albert Stuivenberg and Giggs before the European match
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Red Devils chief executive Ed Woodward attended the match in Bruges along with Manchester United co-chairman Avram Glazer
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Former Holland national team boss Van Gaal congratulates his captain and hat-trick hero Rooney after the final whistle in Belgium
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Ex-Bayern Munich man Schweinsteiger applauds the travelling Manchester United supporters following his side's 4-0 victory
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Rooney walks off the pitch with the match ball after netting an impressive Champions League hat-trick against Club Bruges
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