Despite the possible absentees for the match, Fernandes remains upbeat about the team’s chances of winning the second leg.
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On the back of a disappointing 2-2 draw against Sevilla in the first leg of the Europa League quarter-finals, Bruno Fernandes remains upbeat about United’s chances in the second leg. Playing the first leg at Old Trafford, the home side were cruising and were in a comfortable 2-0 lead. However, two late goals for the visitors meant the tie still remains in the balance. Besides, both Man United centre-backs Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane got off injured during the game.
Furthermore, Fernandes also received a controversial yellow card after he threw himself at a shot when the ball struck his arm. Thereby, he will be ruled out of the second leg in Spain next week. Despite the possible absentees for the match, Fernandes remains upbeat about the team’s chances of winning the second leg. “We have great qualities on the team [and players] that are ready to do their job,” he told BT Sport.
“Everyone that has not been playing a lot wants to play and if some of those players will not be there – in my case I will not be there – they will have the chance to show themselves and we all believe that the group has great qualities to go there and win the game, whoever plays in the first XI or not. We conceded two goals in the last few minutes and we give, a little bit, the game away. But we still have another game to play and the game is still open. It’s like a 0-0 because now the goals away from home doesn’t count, so we have to go there and do our job again.”
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Marcel Sabitzer, who scored twice for Manchester United in the first half on Thursday night, was unable to put it into words to describe the disappointment of conceding the late goals. “I have problems finding the right words, it was like a rollercoaster game,” he told BT Sport. “[We] played a good first half, we had good chances and we had to finish the game off. At the end it’s a draw and it is not what we wanted. We have to go to Seville and get it done there. As I said I think we had to finish the game off. We had the chances, we were confident in the game and we controlled the game. Unfortunately we gave easy goals away, we cannot concede these kind of goals and we are very disappointed.”
He then spoke about how important it is to maintain the concentration level in a game of this magnitude. “In a competition like this you have to be focused until the end and when you are at a per cent less, you can give the game away. I think the last few minutes were a bit strange, one man down and we had to get the result done. As I said, two stupid goals and it is not what we wanted. It is very frustrating. You cannot concede like this, not focusing until the end and when you are 2-0 up at home, you have to get it done,” he explained.
