Ronaldo scores on United return, Arsenal stunned by PSV

Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his return to the starting lineup as they sealed a place in the Europa League knockout rounds with a 3-0 victory over Sheriff Tiraspol at Old Trafford on Thursday.

Ronaldo, who was left out of the squad for the weekend Premier League trip to Chelsea for disciplinary reasons, scored United’s third goal after Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford had given the home side a comfortable lead.

United are in second place in group E with 12 points from five matches ahead of their visit to Real Sociedad in their final pool game next week, where victory could see them top the table and book a place straight into the last 16.

Sociedad defeated Omonia 2-0 thanks to goals from Robert Navarro and Brais Mendez, while Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma kept their knockout round hopes alive with a 2-1 win at HJK Helsinki in group C after striker Tammy Abraham scored their opener.

Arsenal must bounce back quickly after PSV defeat – Arteta

Arsenal have to quickly put Thursday’s disappointing 2-0 Europa League defeat at PSV Eindhoven behind them as they face a hectic fixture schedule, manager Mikel Arteta said.

PSV advanced to the knockout stage of Europe’s second-tier competition following goals from Joey Veerman and Luuk De Jong. The result ended Arsenal’s 100 per cent start to Group A, though they had already sealed a place in the top two before the loss.

Arteta’s side face two home games in the next seven days -against Nottingham Forest in the Premier League on Sunday then FC Zurich in their final Europa League group game on Thursday.

“I’m very disappointed. It’s the end of a long run where we won a lot of games and today is our first defeat (since the start of September) and we have to reset,” Arteta said.

Manchester United won 3-1 at home to Arsenal on September 3 to inflcit their only Premier League defeat so far this season.

“Congratulations to PSV – they were the better team today. We were nowhere near our level and we know that in Europe, it’s very difficult to win (then),” added Arteta.

“We’re disappointed tonight but there’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to react. On Sunday, we have a really important game, and then we’ll look at Zurich.

“We have to be much better than we were today. We knew what they were trying to do and the way we executed certain actions, the way we competed, it wasn’t good enough.”

Ronaldo scores on United return, Arsenal stunned by PSV

Cristiano Ronaldo scored on his first Manchester United appearance since his refusal to come on as a substitute last week in a 3-0 win over Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League on Thursday.

The victory, with goals from Diogo Dalot and Marcus Rashford adding to Ronaldo’s strike, guaranteed the Red Devils a place in the next round, where they will join Barcelona, who were knocked out of the Champions League at the group stage 24 hours earlier.

United manager Erik ten Hag left the Portugal forward out of the United squad for Saturday’s draw at Chelsea and he was only allowed to return to first team training this week.

Ronaldo started up front with 18-year-old Argentinian winger Alejandro Garnacho, who was making his maiden senior start.

Right-back Dalot opened the scoring just before the break before Rashford doubled the lead with 25 minutes to play.

Ronaldo claimed his 701st club career goal and made sure of the three points with nine minutes left.

Arsenal, who are have already reached the last 16, lost for the first time in the group stage as they went down to a 2-0 defeat at PSV Eindhoven.

Gunners coach Mikel Arteta said afterwards that defender Pablo Mari, on loan at Italian club Monza, was having medical treatment after being stabbed in a Milan shopping centre in an attack that killed one person and injured three others.

“I just found out,” Arteta told reporters.”He is in hospital. He seems to be OK. I will get a briefing now about what happened.”

Surprise early season Bundesliga leaders Union Berlin kept alive their hopes of a place in the knockout round of the second-tier European competition thanks to a 1-0 win over Braga.

In the Conference League, West Ham maintained their 100 per cent record by beating Silkeborg 1-0 and Fiorentina clinched their spot in the last 16 with a 2-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir.

In their first match since coach Unai Emery announced he was leaving to manage Premier League club Aston Villa, Villarreal dropped points for the first time in Europe this season.

The Spanish side have already qualified for the last 16 as group winners but were held 2-2 by Hapoel Beer-Sheva as Sagiv Jehezkel equalised in the 79th minute.

In group D, Cologne’s trip to Slovacko has been postponed to Friday morning after the game had been originally delayed by half an hour due to heavy fog in the Czech Republic.

The teams managed just seven minutes of play before the referee abandoned the fixture with the score goal-less.