Rashford strike eases Manchester United past Real Betis into last eight

Two minutes before eight o’clock local time, the Benito Villamarín rose to its feet and began to applaud, 55,000 Real Betis fans then breaking into song. There was recognition there, and resignation too. Marcus Rashford had just sent an absurd shot spearing past Rui Silva to make him the Europa League’s top scorer and, they knew, take Manchester United through to the next round. They had always suspected as much and now it was confirmed. United were 1-0 up on the night, 5-1 on aggregate and it was done. And so they stood to applaud.

Ultimately, United would be able to ease into the next round, where they will surely be favourites. They did so without the one real risk they had faced, Casemiro and Bruno Fernandes, impressive here avoiding suspensions. In the end, their superiority told. The surprise was perhaps that there was only one goal: once United had found a way through, Harry Maguire would head over soon after, Wout Weghorst shot at Silva, and Jadon Sancho was sent clean through only to be ruled offside as Erik ten Haag’s side racked up 15 shots in the south of Spain.

But it was not just about that, it was about Betis too: the had taken as many and they had competed, for an hour at least. They had fallen but that, Manuel Pellegrini had insisted, would not mean they had failed – and that was how the fans felt too.

“Hope goes hand in hand with realism,” Pellegrini had said. Betis had never overcome more than a one-goal deficit in Europe, let alone three, and still less against Manchester United. There is, the coach claimed, an eight-fold different in the budgets of these clubs, but that didn’t mean there would be no belief. The fans had arrived early, gathered in the sunshine, orange blossom announcing the arrival of