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Solskjaer salutes Greenwood, Martial & Rashford for their 'high-class' finishes

  /  autty

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saluted Mason Greenwood, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford after their "high-class" finishes sealed Manchester United's passage into the Europa League knockout stages.

Greenwood opened the scoring against Partizan Belgrade midway through the first half before a stunning solo effort from Martial saw United score two first-half goals at Old Trafford for the first time this season.

Rashford completed the victory with a rasping left-footed drive early in the second half as United qualified from Group L with two games to spare.

"I'm very pleased with all of those finishes, all three goals were high class," Solskjaer said.

"Of course, we should have had a few more, but the first one settled us down. Mason showed great composure; with the goalkeeper going down, he changed his mind and I was very happy with that.

"Anthony's was probably the skill of the night, and then I was very pleased Marcus scored with his left foot. He'll need more goals on his left because he is in that position often and he can go both ways.

"Marcus got in some great positions, made some great runs onto some great passes, the goalkeeper made some saves and the other times he didn't hit the target, but the goal he scored will give him loads of confidence.

"This is a little bit of a template of how we want to play. Of course, it's the opposition that allow you to play that way as well. No disrespect to Partizan, but they gave us spaces.

"It was pleasing for me that we went forward and needed the second and third, because there have been too many occasions where we've gone 1-0 up and not got the second or third.

"These boys are learning, tonight will give them loads of pointers on how to play when we are performing well, and even though the opposition was not the same as in the Premier League, there were still good principles."