Manchester United 1 - 0 CSKA Moscow
Sevilla 1-3 Manchester City
By the time Manchester United came out blinking from a stressful, wearying and occasionally mutinous night Wayne Rooney had moved alongside Denis Law as the second highest scorer in the club’s history.
He is now a dozen short of Sir Bobby Charlton’s record of 249 goals and, briefly, Old Trafford felt like a happy place to be, once again.
Yet that told only part of the story and what preceded it was exceptional at a club where they generally pride themselves on unity. On the balance of play, United clearly deserved the victory but this was also a night when the crowd made it clear they were no longer willing to tolerate blandness. The first chant of “attack, attack, attack” went up from the Stretford end directly before kick-off and the same plaintive cry could be heard intermittently at other points, with varying degrees of urgency and irritability. 
Meanwhile in Sevilla, an impressive victory by Manchester City took them into the last 16 of the Champions League with two games to spare and with it created the sense of a significant step having been taken in the quest to become a force in the competition. Borussia Mönchengladbach’s draw with Juventus confirmed City’s passage with six points still available in Group D. Having leapfrogged the Italian club, they now have a real chance of finishing top and facing a group runner-up in the knockout stage.
By the close City had managed the contest expertly, snuffing out Sevilla to the delight of the City fans, who had begun the game by booing the Champions League anthem once more.
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