A motivated Manchester United side extended its unbeaten run in all competitions to seven games with a 3-0 win over visiting Sheriff Tiraspol on Thursday in the Europa League.
The teams were meeting for their penultimate group-stage match of the competition. However, only United will be guaranteed more games after next week's Matchday 6 fixtures as Thursday's result assured that Sheriff would not be advancing to the Europa League knockout round.
United was seemingly on a mission to make Thursday's contest as one-sided as possible, with the Premier League side finishing with 24 shots (10 on target) in comparison to Sheriff's zero shots. Predictably, the lopsided number of attempts led to a flurry of real goal-scoring chances for the home side, and the Red Devils made good on three of them.
First, it was Diogo Dalot, whose header put the hosts ahead one minute before halftime. Marcus Rashford then scored United's second of the match in the 65th minute, nodding in a powerful header of his own. Then it was Cristiano Ronaldo's turn to put himself on the score sheet. Sheriff goalkeeper Maksym Koval denied his initial headed effort, only for the rebound to fall kindly to the 37-year-old superstar for an 81st-minute goal.
Thursday's result sets up a clash next week against Group E leader Real Sociedad, which sits three points ahead of United going into the final day of group stage action.