Before Tuesday evening, it had been nearly 17 months since Manchester United last played a Champions League game at Old Trafford, a 3-1 defeat at the hands of a rampant Bayern Munich. After a longer-than-desired absence from Europe's premier domestic competition, the Red Devils welcomed Belgium's Club Brugge for the first leg of their qualification play-off:United's fans were excited to be back in the (play-off leading to the) spotlight, even if some of them weren't too familiar with the task ahead:Despite the visitors' apparent anonymity, United fans seemed confident of victory:Brugge were suffering an injury crisis, they had failed to win any of their previous 11 games in England, and they haven't made it to the Champions League group stage in a decade (as per the Guardian). Yet the travelling fans clearly brought the banter:Following his disappointing outing at Villa Park last Friday, there was much pre-match discussion about Wayne Rooney:Mr Rooney had a chance to open the scoring within seconds of kick-off, but to the surprise of most, it was Brugge who went ahead in the eighth minute when Michael Carrick turned a free-kick into his own net:However, Carrick didn't take very long to redeem himself and save United's blushes. Within five minutes, he had sent a superb pass in the direction of Memphis Depay, who put away the equaliser with style:Shortly before the half-hour mark, Adnan Januzaj appealed for a penalty when he hit the deck after a challenge from Oscar Duarte. The referee ignored the protestation and appeared to have stern words with the Belgian international afterwards:A few minutes before the half-time whistle, Memphis added to his growinggolazo collection with a beautiful curling strike from outside the area. Understandably, the Internet was quite impressed:Of course, there was some obligatory scorn directed at the Dutchman:And there was plenty of comment passed about Depay's choice of goal celebration:In spite of the hate and extensive dance analysis, Memphis was clearly having a good night. Well, a much better night than BT Sports commentator Michael Owen:As the second half progressed, there wasn't too much action to report on, save for Brugge's Brandon Mechele earning a second yellow for chopping down Javier Hernandez. The Mexican forward played the No. 9 role and Rooney moved backa change that was clearly welcomed:Rooney was eventually replaced by Marouane Fellaini, who threatened to give United a healthier aggregate scoreline on several occasions before finally nodding one in with the last touch of the game:Fellaini ended the game as a hero, but clearly the evening belonged to Memphis Depay. Enjoy him while you can, United fanslooks like he's caught someone else's attention...Read more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
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