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| Cristiano Ronaldo scored an injury-time winner against Villarreal, in a rematch of last season’s Europa League final |
Cristiano Ronaldo grabbed an injury-time winner as Manchester United came from behind to secure a 2-1 Champions League Group F win over Villarreal at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
After squandering a series of chances in the first half, Villarreal took a deserved lead in the 53rd minute when a counter-attack was finished off by Paco Alcacer who turned in Arnaut Danjumaโs low cross.
Yet United struck back seven minutes later with a cleverly worked free kick as Bruno Fernandes chipped the ball deep to Alex Telles on the left and the Brazilian fired home a perfect volley.
United, who lost their opening group game away to Young Boys in Bern, had been far from impressive, but a cross from Fred in the final moments found its way to Ronaldo at the back post and he fired home the winner.
Dismal Barca battered by Benfica as pressure on Koeman mounts
Barcelona were humbled 3-0 by Benfica on Wednesday to pile the pressure on coach Ronald Koeman with the Spanish clubโs Champions League hopes hanging by a thread.
Barca are bottom of Group E with no points from two games, six behind leaders Bayern Munich and four adrift of Benfica.
Things started badly for the Catalans as Darwin Nunez opened the scoring after three minutes with a neat near-post finish.
Lucas Verissima made a last-ditch block to deny Luuk de Jong from close range as Barca looked to get back into the game, but they were second best throughout.
Nunez almost added a second five minutes after the break when he hit the post from distance after beating Marc-Andre ter Stegen to a through ball, but with 21 minutes left Jorge Jesusโs side got their reward as Rafa Silva fired in from close range.
Nunez doubled his tally from the penalty spot on 79 minutes, before a bad night turned worse for Barca when Eric Garcia was sent off for a second yellow card three minutes from time.
