So the legacy a serial Champions League winner leaves at Manchester United looks like including Champions League football. For a man who conquered Europe as a United player, meanwhile, it looks like a passport to stay in the dugout and compete with the continent’s finest.
United only need a maximum of two points to secure the top-five finish that, after a year of exile from Europe, will send them back in at the top level. As Michael Carrick has rescued a season in remarkable fashion, it appears ever likelier the 2008 Champions League winner will be in charge then.
But as Casemiro signs off, it can be in the knowledge a Real Madrid great has restored United to what both he and they would regard as their rightful destination. Brentford were beaten in part by the Brazilian to leave United 11 points clear of sixth-place Brighton. Benjamin Sesko added to his 11th-minute opener but this was a victory forged by Carrick and Casemiro, aided and abetted by Senne Lammens, Bruno Fernandes and Harry Maguire.
That blend of the returning and the departing, the new and the old has worked well in 2026. Carrick has found a formula; there may have been an irony that, for the second half, he switched to Ruben Amorim’s beloved 3-4-3 to prevent a Brentford fightback but it was another instance of a calm thinker getting a decision right.
The decision-makers in the directors’ box have got many a choice wrong but they can reflect with satisfaction on a couple that have paid off. Picking Carrick has paid off; his 13 games at the helm have now produced 29 points. And buying Lammens, who seemed a cheap afterthought last summer, has come to look inspired. The £18m goalkeeper produced a trio of terrific first-half saves – two to spare his teammate Ayden Heaven an own goal – to preserve the advantage Casemiro gave them.
Victory also stemmed from the veterans and their threat from set-pieces. United’s opener was a combination of three thirty-somethings, finished by the oldest of them all. An attention to detail at set-pieces paid off.
There were two corners from Fernandes, each aimed for Maguire at the far post. United almost scored from the first as Caoimhin Kelleher made a terrific save to claw away the defender’s forceful header. Much of the ball crossed the line but, with the Irishman’s acrobatics, not all of it.
They did score from the second, Maguire heading it back for Casemiro to apply the finishing touch. He has nine league goals from the base of midfield; or from his prowess in the penalty area, anyway. The chorus from the Stretford End was “one more year, Casemiro”. This has been a redemptive end to his United career. In his last year at Old Trafford, like his first, the Brazilian has been a catalyst.
Meanwhile, Fernandes showed his creativity; after Maguire’s header was saved and the offside Amad Diallo had a goal chalked off, it was rewarded with a 19th Premier League assist of the season. He is now only one off the record shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin de Bruyne after Fernandes carried the ball into the Brentford box, picked out Sesko and he found the back of the net.
The Slovenian has tended to score more as substitute than starter but, minus the injured Matheus Cunha, there was little doubt he would begin. And whereas United spent some of the first half of the season shrinking when opportunities presented themselves, they looked intent on grasping this. They brimmed with confidence, epitomised when Kobbie Mainoo, scarcely known for his dribbling, embarked on a mazy solo run. He committed Kelleher in the second minute, seemed to set up Amad for a goal, but Sepp van den Berg, on the line, deflected the Ivorian’s shot wide.
Nevertheless, the result was more convincing than elements of the performance. Brentford have not won at Old Trafford since 1937 but are entitled to wonder if they could have made history. Lammens was outstanding, thwarting first Michael Kayode and then, twice, coming to Heaven’s aid when, in his attempts to stop Igor Thiago, he almost diverted the ball into his own net. Go back seven months and defeat to Brentford prompted Amorim to drop Altay Bayindir and give Lammens a debut. What a difference he has made.
Because United looked less than watertight. Keane Lewis-Potter was electric on Brentford’s left. Even after Carrick switched shape, bringing on Noussair Mazraoui as a third centre-back, Dango Ouattara still headed against the post. Brentford got a consolation goal when Mathias Jensen curled a beautiful shot past Lammens.
But their run of five consecutive draws gave way to defeat. The prospect of them competing in the Champions League has receded. In contrast, United are almost there.
