Manchester United Crushes Sabah 4:0 on Champions League Return

After two years away, Manchester United made a stylish return to the Champions League on Thursday night. Playing their 300th match in the competition, the Red Devils cruised to a comfortable 4:0 victory over Sabah at Old Trafford, with goals from Matheus Cunha (27), Bruno Fernandes (42), Benjamin Sesko (45), and Lisandro Martinez (68).

"It's nice to keep a clean sheet," Michael Carrick summed up. "Some of our attacking play was fantastic. We were dangerous in transitions and defended, for the most part of the game, very well. I must give Sabah a lot of credit. It's a team that is very difficult to play against. They force you to work extremely hard to win the ball back. The result looks comfortable. It wasn't always like that during the match, but I thought we did a lot of good things tonight, and it brought us a good result."

Now Carrick and his players can prepare with peace of mind for the big derby against Manchester City. The manager said: "The confidence is there. In the way we played against Everton on Sunday, the confidence was there for large parts of the game. It's always nice to win, and it was important to get the first home win to open the campaign. And now another big game awaits us on Sunday."

"I think it was perfect for everyone, especially for our fans," Sesko concluded. "It means a lot to them, especially seeing so many goals. I think generally it was great for us and will give us more motivation for the upcoming games. Of course I am happy with my goal, it's important that everyone is able to score. I hope we'll see this in many more games."

Does tonight's result provide confidence ahead of the big derby against Manchester City? "Definitely. I think this is a huge boost of confidence. It's important to recover well and concentrate on the derby."