Manchester United achieved liftoff in the Champions League on Tuesday night, coming away from a rain-soaked Old Trafford with a 3-0 win against Basel in their first European game of the 2017-18 season.
Bar a hamstring injury for Paul Pogba, it was a perfect night for the Red Devils as they didn’t have to come out of second gear to see off their Swiss opponents, maintaining possession for long spells and looking comfortable in building attacks.
Jose Mourinho was right to suggest that his side could have played better though, and a determination to score more could easily have seen United match Chelsea’s result of 6-0 over Azerbaijani side Qarabag FK.
Nevertheless, United sit top of Champions League Group A following Tuesday night’s victory, as well as being top of the Premier League with four games played.
Now, we look back on United’s last five 3-0 victories in the Champions League and how far the Red Devils went in the competition after those wins…
March 2014: United 3-0 Olympiakos
Season: 2013-14 Competition phase: Round of 16
Following a bitterly disappointing 2-0 defeat in the away leg three weeks earlier, United had a lot to do to progress to the quarter finals of the compeititon in 2013-14 — and it was one player’s heroics which saw them through.
Robin van Persie scored a delightful hat-trick against Olympiakos at Old Trafford to put United into the next round, where unfortunately they lost 4-2 to Bayern Munich on aggregate.
February 2011: Bursaspor 0-3 United
Season: 2010-11 Competition phase: Group stage
In a group with Valencia, Bursaspor and Rangers, United went unbeaten and only conceded one goal as they topped the group.
This 3-0 win was a textbook job, with Darren Fletcher and Gabby Obertan scoring 2nd half goals before an Ali Tandogan own goal finished the job.
United were to progress all the way to the competition’s final at Wembley that season, but lost 3-1 to Barcelona, with Lionel Messi running riot.
October 2008: United 3-0 Celtic
Season: 2008-09 Competition phase: Group stage
Just five months after beating Chelsea on penalties to win the Champions League in Moscow, United beat Celtic 3-0 in the group stages of the competition during the following season.
Two goals from Dimitar Berbatov and one goal from Wayne Rooney saw off the Scottish side at Old Trafford, three weeks after another 3-0 victory in the competition…
September 2008: AaB 0-3 United
Season: 2008-09 Competition phase: Group stage
Prior to that 3-0 win over Celtic, United beat Danish side AaB Fodbold by the same scoreline in Group E of the 08-09 Champions League.
Interestingly, the scorers were the same in both games, with Berbatov scoring twice and Rooney grabbing one of his own in Denmark before the pair repeating their exploits against Celtic.
United went all the way to the final after this successful group stage, but lost 2-0 to Barcelona.
October 2006: United 3-0 Copenhagen
Season: 2006-07 Competition phase:Group stage
Copenhagen were United’s opponents for this 3-0 victory, which came in Group F of the competition’s 06-07 season. The goalscorers at Old Trafford that night were Paul Scholes, John O’Shea and Kieran Richardson.
United went on to progress from the group, which also contained Benfica and Celtic; they beat Lille in the Round of 16, before smashing Roma 8-3 (agg) in the quarter finals — although they went out in the semis to eventual winners AC Milan.