Manchester United should never get used to losing, says Bruno Fernandes

MANCHESTER – Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes said the club’s fans should not lower their expectations, despite the Red Devils struggles this season, particularly at Old Trafford.

The 30-year-old rescued his side with a stoppage-time winner to beat an under-strength Rangers 2-1 on Jan 23 to move fourth in the table and close in on direct passage to the Europa League last 16.

United had lost four of their previous five home games, which prompted manager Ruben Amorim to declare his side “the worst” in the club’s storied history.

“At this club, you need to win every game. You know that if you don’t win games here it is going to be difficult, there are going to be tough moments,” Fernandes told TNT Sports.

“This is a massive club that is used to winning games. I hope that our fans never get used to losing games, even in this tough experience. I want them to feel like this team has to win every game.”

A point away to Romanian side FCSB next week should be enough to secure a top-eight finish in the Europa League table for United to avoid the play-off round.

Amorim has been desperate to advance directly to the last 16 to give him some much-needed time on the training ground to imbed his ideas. Fernandes has higher ambitions, as he targets winning the competition in Bilbao come May.

“Today was important to get the win because we want to get through in the Europa League, we want to go to the final,” he added.

United also struck late last week to come from 1-0 down to beat bottom-of-the-table Southampton 3-1, thanks to Amad Diallo’s hat-trick.

On Jan 23, the English side broke the deadlock early in the second half when Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland misjudged a Christian Eriksen corner, sending the ball into his own net.

Rangers fought back with an equaliser from substitute Cyriel Dessers two minutes from time, before Fernandes struck in added time to give United all three points.

The Portuguese midfielder called for his side to show more consistency rather than needing late heroics to dig themselves out of trouble.

“It is not about proving the character, we have to prove that in the 90 minutes, we can’t only bring that out when we concede a goal or something goes against us,” he said.

“We need to be consistent through the 90 minutes, it does not matter about the result, we always have to be trying to find a way to win the game.

“Unfortunately for us, we conceded a late goal and had to score a late winner.”

Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min struck twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim.

James Maddison opened the scoring for Spurs in the third minute and Son doubled the lead in a first half the visitors dominated at the Rhein-Neckar-Arena.

Hoffenheim pulled one back in the 68th minute through Anton Stach. Son restored Spurs’ two-goal lead in the 77th minute before David Mokwa scored to give the hosts late hope, but the game ended in a narrow win for the English side, who are sixth.

But there was more bad news for the injury-ravaged Spurs, with striker Dominic Solanke set to miss around six weeks of action due to a knee injury picked up in training. REUTERS