Ronaldo, De Gea seal Carrick debut win in spite of Manchester United board actions

VILLARREAL, Spain — The Manchester United-owning Glazer family, as well as executive vice-president Ed Woodward and director Richard Arnold, will no doubt celebrate the team’s 2-0 win over Villarreal that takes the club into the Champions League knockout rounds as Group F winners, but they don’t deserve to.

By botching the sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and giving rookie manager Michael Carrick just over 48 hours and two training sessions to prepare for a tough trip to Spain, they set him up to fail.

But as they have often done in Europe this season, United found a way.

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Well, Cristiano Ronaldo did. His sixth goal in five Champions League games, followed by Jadon Sancho’s first goal since joining from Borussia Dortmund, means United will be in the hat for the last 16 in the new year.

The club will enjoy the financial windfall that comes with it, but this progress was secured despite a two-week international break in which Solskjaer remained in his job, only to be let go — and an untried coach installed — on the eve of one of United’s biggest games of the season.

Carrick, along with fellow coaches Mike Phelan and Kieran McKenna, kept his job when Solskjaer left, but this was a baptism of fire for someone with zero previous experience as a manager. It wasn’t pretty — particularly in the first half — but that was to be expected after a tumultuous couple of days.

Carrick needed David De Gea to be at his best to claim a welcome clean sheet after shipping 19 goals in Solskjaer’s last seven games, while at the other end Ronaldo and Sancho took advantage of two rare chances.

At the final whistle, Carrick went over to the away fans high above the goal and was serenaded by a chant of “Carrick, you know, it’s hard to believe it’s not Scholes” — a song from his playing days that…