Smalling basks in difficult Wolfsburg win

Match-winner Chris Smalling was delighted after Manchester United came through a “battle” to overcome Wolfsburg 2-1 in the Champions League.

United – who lost their opening Group B fixture 2-1 against PSV – got off to a dreadful start at Old Trafford when Daniel Caligiuri netted in the fourth minute.

However, they responded impressively and grabbed the points thanks to goals from Juan Mata and Smalling.

The latter’s winner capped a man-of-the-match performance, and he was understandably buoyant.

“It was a battle,” he told BT Sport. “We started off sloppy and gave ourselves a big battle to get back into the game.

“After that we created a lot of chances and I think it was a deserved win. We didn’t give them too many chances.”

All four teams are now on three points in the pool, meaning there is plenty to play for.

Mata added: “It was very tough. We were defending hard in the end because we were physically very tired.

“We did what we had to do, which was win after losing the first game in Holland. The group is [wide open]. We had to win and now we have a difficult challenge in Moscow.”