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Wayne Rooney's hat-trick books Manchester United's place in group stages

Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick as Manchester United secured their return to the Champions League group stage on Wednesday with an emphatic victory over Club Brugge.





Wayne Rooney scored a hat-trick as Manchester United secured their return to the Champions League group stage on Wednesday with an emphatic victory over Club Brugge.
United, absent from football's elite club competition last term, were ahead in the 20th minute of the qualifying play-off second leg in Belgium when Rooney notched his first goal of 2015-16, converting from a tee-up by Memphis Depay, scorer of a brace in last week's 3-1 first-leg triumph.
Rooney added further finishes in the 49th and 57th minutes, Ander Herrera struck in the 63rd, and it mattered little that substitute Javier Hernandez missed a penalty late on as United cruised to a 4-0 win that made it 7-1 on aggregate.
Joining them in the pool stage will be Bayer Leverkusen, who turned their play-off around by beating 10-man Lazio 3-0 at home.
The Germans trailed 1-0 from the first leg, but levelled things when Hakan Calhanoglu scored in the 40th minute.
Three minutes after the interval, they had another goal as Admir Mehmedi smashed in, and the Italian visitors then had Mauricio sent off in the 68th minute before their misery was completed in the 88th, Karim Bellarabi sealing Bayer's 3-1 aggregate win.
Also through after coming from behind are CSKA Moscow, who were 2-1 down against Sporting Lisbon from the first leg in Portugal but won the return encounter in Russia 3-1 to triumph 4-3 overall.
Sporting increased their advantage through Teofilo Gutierrez's first-half strike, but CSKA replied after the break through a Seydou Doumbia double and Ahmed Musa effort, with the away side then being reduced to 10 men in stoppage time as Joao Mario was dismissed.
BATE Borisov lost 2-1 to Partizan Belgrade in Serbia but, with the tie finishing 2-2, progressed on away goals, Igor Stasevich providing the crucial strike for the Belarusians before Maksim Zhavnerchik's own-goal and substitute Ivan Saponjic's stoppage-time effort.

Astana became the first Kazakhstani club to qualify for the group stage as their 1-1 draw with APOEL Nicosia in Cyprus saw them win 2-1 overall. Semir Stilic levelled the tie before Nemanja Maksimovic replied for Astana late on.