Manchester United announced their return to the Champions League in style on Wednesday evening, thrashingClub Brugge 4-0 in the second leg of their play-offto claim a 7-1 aggregate victory overall.Captain Wayne Rooney answered his critics with an emphatic hat-trick at Jan Breydel Stadium to set the Red Devils on course for a Champions League return, while Ander Herrera was also among the star performers.Elsewhere, Bayer Leverkusen flipped the script on Lazio to claim a 3-0 victory and proceed with a 3-1 aggregate win, while CSKA Moscow came back from a goal down to beat Sporting Lisbon 3-1, triumphing 4-3 over both legs.Joining those teams in the group stage will be Astana and BATE Borisov, who did enough in their respective fixtures against APOEL Nicosia and Partizan Belgrade, respectively, to advance.What better way for the Champions League to make its return than with a goal-filled climax to the play-off drama, with all Wednesday's results detailed ahead, along with match recap.RecapRooney did his bit to sweep any notion of a Manchester United goal drought to one side on Wednesday evening, scoring the first three of his side's four goals in a sound beating of Club Brugge.The Red Devils' official Twitter account couldn't help but fire back at those who dared doubt the England striker in recent weeks, following his first goals of the campaign:The job was already half-done for Van Gaal's men, but United came out to show great intent during the second leg, giving a performance that all at Old Trafford will surely find encouraging prior to their Champions League comeback.Also heading back to Europe's premier contest will be Leverkusen, who defeated Lazio 3-0 to give a far more confident account of their abilities than the 1-0 defeat in Rome last week.Hakan Calhanoglu and Admir Mehmedi each netted on either side of the half-time whistle before Karim Bellarabi sealed the Factory Squad's future with an 88th-minute strike at the BayArena.FourFourTwo's Charles Ducksbury confessed his excitement to see the Bundesliga giants back among the big guns as manager Roger Schmidt attempts to beat last season's round-of-16 exit:United weren't the only European regulars making a return to the promised land, though, as Russian stalwarts CSKA Moscow moved past Sporting Lisbon thanks to three second-half finishes on Wednesday.Seydou Doumbia, back on loan at his former club from Roma, scored twice before Ahmed Musa contributed a third to further cement their Champions League history, per Infostrada Sports:Sporting were hopeful of moving on, but stamina ultimately proved to be an issue for Jorge Jesus' men, who will have to settle for a place in the Europa League.There was also to be a little piece of history on Wednesday as Nemanja Maksimovic scored an 84th-minute equaliser to make Astana the first Kazakh club ever to reach the Champions League group stage, per OptaJose:Semir Stilic gave APOEL a 1-0 lead in Cyprus, and it looked as though the two teams were set for extra time, but Maksimovic's last-gasp sweep through the middle may go down as the most important in Astana's existence.Belarusian champions BATE Borisov also join the group-stage lineup despite losing 2-1 at Partizan Belgrade on Wednesday, by virtue of away goals.The main story of the night was of course Manchester United's European comeback, but just how will Van Gaal's men fare as they look to once again build a side capable of winning titles'They join an extremely talented array of outfits all seeking Champions League glory, with the tournament's field for the 2015-16 campaign finally complete.Read more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
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