Young Dutch Winger and New Manchester United Recruit Memphis Depay Scored Two Brilliant Goals and Made Another in Uniteds Comfortable Yet Important Win over Brugge in the First Leg of the Champions League Qualifier at Old Trafford.
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Young Dutch winger and new Manchester United recruit Memphis Depay scored two brilliant goals and made another in Uniteds comfortable yet important win over Brugge in the first leg of the Champions League qualifier at Old Trafford.The Champions league theme was played at the famous English stadium for the first time in over 15 months as United made a return to Europes elite club competition albeit in a qualifier against Belgian side Club Brugge. Much was said about the ineffectiveness of Uniteds attacking play in the opening two games of the Premier league and the visitors must have fancied their chances of pulling of an upset against the English giants. The Belgian side started aggressively with them team pressing high up the pitch and had a goal to show for their efforts as Michael Carrick unluckily diverted a LVictor Vazquez free kick inside his own net. As United grew in confidence they controlled possession in search of a quick equaliser to settle some nerves inside the stadium. The equalizer was made by Depay as Carricks long pass from midfield found him at the edge of the Brugge penalty box. Lobbing the ball over a defender he dribbled past a nervous back-line and rifled a shot in the bottom corner. Much of Uniteds attack came from the left hand side with Depay and Januzaj, who retained his place in the starting line-up from the Villa game, combined well but without an end product. As Brugge dropped deeper the threat of a counter attack was always present but was handled expertly by Schneiderlin who excelled as the protector of the back four. United got the just reward for their endeavours just before half-time as a pass from Blind found Depay just outside the box who cut in to his right and curled a shot past the Brugge goalie into the far corner. It was a brilliant goal which lifted the Old Trafford home crowd and at the same time deflated the away side who had just lost experienced midfielder Simmons to injury. Bastian Schweinstiger was introduced in place of Carrick at half time in search of more goals to put the tie to bed. However Brugge offered more resistance in the second period as United struggled to breach their defence. The later period saw the introduction of crowd favourite Javier Hernandez in place of Januzaj as United chased another goal. Club captain Rooney extended his goal drought to nine competitive games. However his performance was applauded by the crowd as he was replaced by Marouane Fellaini with six minutes remaining. Brugge played the last ten minutes with ten men as centre-back Brandon Mechele picked up a second yellow for a professional foul.