On the back of the penalty shoot-out defeat against Villarreal, Rashford asserted that Manchester United will not give up.
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Marcus Rashford has assured that Manchester United will not give up after suffering an agonising shoot-out defeat against Villarreal in the Europa League final. He also said finishing second “means nothing” and they have to find out why they missed out on the title to ensure that it does not happen again. “The feeling inside is difficult to explain because at the end of the day we came here to win,” he told BT Sport. “We’ve been working so hard all season and this was the opportunity to win a trophy and it didn’t happen for whatever reason.
“Maybe not now, we have to get rid of the disappointment first, but after that we need to look back at the game, see what we’ve done wrong, where we can improve and all I can say is the team will not give up. There’s no chance that the team gives up. The manager will not give up, he won’t allow us to give up and we will come next season with a bigger desire.”
In the marathon penalties, United suffered an 11-10 shoot-out loss, following a 1-1 draw in regulation time. Asserting that they have everything at their disposal to compete at the highest level, the England international wants the team to “show why we belong in the top places”. “For me the club, the desire, the hunger, the talent, the ability, the squad, we have everything to compete at the highest level,” he added.
“We just have to show [it], we have to show it to the world and show [it] to ourselves. Show why we belong in the top places, why we belong in finals like this, why we need to be winning finals like this. In the league we finished second, second doesn’t count for anything. It counts for nothing.
“Manchester City won the league, and we finished second but it means nothing. Villarreal win the Europa League and we finish second in it. For us it’s nothing. I don’t want to hear ‘oh, they were so close’ because it doesn’t mean anything. There’s one winner and there’s one loser and today we lost and we have to find out why and make sure that next time we don’t lose.”
Rashford also feels that sacrifices are needed to win major trophies. “To win big trophies you have to show sacrifice. I could walk you into the dressing room, I could show you five, six, seven players and me as well who had injuries here, from September, the beginning of the season and we all stayed together as a unit and we fought to be successful for the club,” he added.
“This year it didn’t happen, but next year… we have to go away now and clear our heads and when we come back we start fresh. When Ole came in, there was a process and the players believe in this process and this isn’t the end of the process.”
