LONDON: Manchester United had double reason to celebrate on Wednesday — the team ended their one-year Champions League hiatus in emphatic style and star striker Wayne Rooney is scoring again.

Rooney ended a drought of 10 games without a goal stretching back to April 4 with a hat trick in United’s 4-0 win at Club Bruges, helping the English club to a 7-1 victory on aggregate.

While the Champions League welcomed back one of the continent’s biggest names and a three-time European champion, a club with a very different pedigree also advanced.

Formed six years ago and in just their third season in European competition, FC Astana became the first team from Kazakhstan to qualify for the group stage after drawing 1-1 at APOEL Nicosia for a 2-1 aggregate win.

Nemanja Maksimovic’s goal in the 84th proved decisive for Astana, a team backed by Kazkahstan’s sovereign-wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna and the most remote of all the clubs in the group stage.

As the playoffs for Europe’s elite club competition reached their climax, Bayer Leverkusen, BATE Borisov and CSKA Moscow joined United and Astana in securing the final places the lucrative group stage.

Leverkusen thumped visiting 10-man Lazio 3-0 on the night to go through 3-1, BATE of Belarus lost 2-1 at Partizan Belgrade but advanced on away goals after the tie ended 2-2 while CSKA Moscow eliminated Sporting Lisbon 4-3 on aggregate.

United missed out on the Champions League last season as a consequence of their dreadful season in 2013-14 under David Moyes, the successor to long-time manager Alex Ferguson.

Louis van Gaal has managed to restore England’s most successful club to Europe’s top competition at the first attempt — albeit through the playoffs — as Bruges proved a soft touch on Wednesday.

Rooney ended a wait of 878 minutes for a United goal — and silenced some of his critics in the process — by scoring in the 20th minute with deft finish over the goalkeeper from close range, and added more in the 49th and 57th minutes as his confidence grew and Bruges’ defence opened up.

Spaniard Ander Herrera compounded a night of misery for the Belgian club after 63 minutes following a Bastian Schweinsteiger cross to put the three-time winners of the Champions League through in style, despite substitute Javier Hernandez missing a late penalty.

“Obviously, I’m delighted to get the goals but it was a massive game for the club,” Rooney told BT Sport. “I understand because of who I am I get publicised a lot more. But we knew we had to get into the Champions League, it was vital.”

ASTANA MAKE HISTORY

Kazakhstan became the 32nd country to be represented in the group stage after Maksimovic tapped in the crucial goal from close range six minutes from time for Astana.

The Kazakh club had taken a 1-0 lead to Nicosia for their second leg against 2012 quarter-finalists APOEL but Semir Stilic’s superb free-kick had put the Cypriots ahead after 60 minutes.

In Germany, Lazio had gone to Leverkusen hoping to defend a one-goal advantage and reach the main draw for the first time since the 2007/08 season.

But the Italians were trailing following goals from Hakan Calhanoglu (40) and Admir Mehmedi (48) and faced an uphill battle as they played the last 20 minutes with ten men when Brazilian Maurmcio was sent off for a second yellow card.

Karim Bellarabi put the result beyond any doubt for the Germans when he finished into an empty net two minutes from time after good work from Julian Brandt.

Belarussian champions BATE reached the group stages for the fourth time in five years on away goals after an injury-time Ivan Saponjic goal earned Partizan a hollow victory on the night.

Igor Stasevich put BATE ahead after 25 minutes after the ball bounced into his path, only for Partizan to level after 74 minutes via an own goal from BATE’s Maksim Zhavnerchik CSKA advanced after a come-from-behind 3-1 success against Sporting Lisbon to add to their record of seven wins out of seven in Russia this season.

Sporting had taken a 2-1 advantage to Moscow and Teofilo Gutierrez scored an away goal after 36 minutes before a second half double from CSKA’s Ivorian striker Seydou Doumbia on 49 and 72 minutes left the tie level.

Nigerian striker Ahmed Musa got the winner for the Russians five minutes from time as they qualify for the main draw for the third straight season.

Spain are the first country to have five clubs in the group stage in one season after Valencia progressed past Monaco 4-3 on aggregate despite a 2-1 defeat at the Ligue 1 side in their playoff second leg on Tuesday.

Malmo, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel Aviv and Shakhtar Donetsk also won their playoff ties on Tuesday.

Published in Dawn, August 28th, 2015

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