United In Europa League

Manchester United will compete in the Europa League for only the second time when European football resumes in February after the Reds bowed out of the Champions League in dramatic fashion in Wolfsburg.

Needing a win to guarantee progress from Group B into the last 16, Louis van Gaal’s men instead lost 3-2 to the German hosts, enabling PSV Eindhoven to snatch second spot with their 2-1 victory at home to CSKA Moscow.

For two fleeting periods in a pulsating second half, the Reds were on track to stay in the Champions League - firstly, when PSV fell behind to a 76th-minute penalty while United were trailing 2-1 and secondly when a Wolfsburg own goal in the 82nd minute levelled the score at 2-2 at the Volkswagen Arena.

At that moment, the other game in the Netherlands was also all-square at 1-1 after Luuk de Jong's equaliser, but then Davy Propper smashed PSV into the lead, just after Naldo scored his second and Wolfsburg's third goal past David De Gea.

That left United needing two goals in the dying moments to go through and although nobody could rule that out on a crazy night, the task ultimately proved beyond the visitors who therefore finished third in the group with eight points after two wins (Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow, both at home), two draws and two defeats.

The draw for the Europa League’s Round of 32 – including all the third-placed teams from the eight Champions League groups – will take place in Nyon on Monday 14 December.