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Manchester United overcame Villarreal on Tuesday to qualify for the Champions League's Round of 16. Expensive summer signing Jadon Sancho got on the scoresheet for the first time since his long awaited move to Manchester United from Borussia Dortmund.
Michael Carrick won his first game in charge of the Manchester United senior team by a 2-0 margin in Spain.
Carrick took time out to reflect on the result at the end of the night:
“The game panned out as I thought, when you’ve had results we’ve had and gone through what we have it would be very foolish to think it would be free-flowing and everything would be wonderful."
"They make you work for it and make you defend, test you with how clever you are at closing spaces. I had a feeling it would be a tight game," he added.
"I said before the game it’s important who starts it but it's just as important finishing the game and how you finish it. That was the balancing act going through the mind of me and my staff and in the end it kind of came through," said Carrick.
He also commended the side for playing brilliantly in the second half to see the game through:
"First half was tight, we grew into the game as we went on and you could see we were taking more of the ball and that belief was growing. I thought we'd be better at halftime but it proved to be a little bit tougher at the start of the second half, we had players to change it and in the end it worked out. Everyone played their part. There was a real drive and togetherness and support for each other."
He's one of the best around: Michael Carrick hails Manchester United's Fred
During Carrick's first game in charge of the Red Devils, Fred replaced Nemanja Matic and helped Manchester United secure an important win against Villareal.
After the game, Carrick was quick to praise the midfielder for his involvement in both goals:
“He played a massive part in the first goal, obviously Cristiano finishes it off but Fred was terrific. The defending and the intercepting for the second goal is what we’ve got in the team."
“To be able to intercept and his team's on the break like that, that’s always in the DNA of the club and that’s the players we’ve still got," concluded the Manchester United coach.
