Erik ten Hag praised Bruno Fernandes’s personality and described him as Manchester United’s best performer as they bounced back from Sunday’s humiliation at Liverpool by beating Real Betis 4-1 in the Europa League last-16 first leg.
Fernandes scored United’s third goal and also created Antony’s second at Old Trafford on Thursday as part of an impressive all-round display. It followed the stand-in captain being roundly chastised for an irritable performance in the 7-0 loss at Anfield.
Ten Hag said: “He was the best player on the pitch, it showed his personality. He played a little deeper role tonight and he was brilliant, making the game from the back in position, a lot of good passes in between the lines. From there we created a lot of chances.”
Fernandes’s exuberance caused him to leave a foot in on Claudio Bravo in the second half for which he was booked. The manager, when asked if this part of his game should be curtailed, said: “It’s his strength and his passion but you are right, sometimes he has to control that. He has to bring it, it is his strength and when it’s too much it becomes a weakness, that’s true – he knows that and there are always small margins.”
Ten Hag selected the same players that started against Liverpool, giving them the chance to respond. “But also I thought it was the best lineup if I saw Real Betis,” the Dutchman said. “We played 23 games in-a-row with one loss and the 24th was a huge defeat. You can’t ignore the 22 games before where we played well.
“Definitely [I am pleased]. We said we had to reset, bounce back and we played quite good in the first half and we should have been up 3-0 also, but we made one mistake [to concede] and we bounced back and we did.”
David Moyes is targeting another long run in Europe after West Ham put one foot in the quarter-finals of the Europa Conference League.
Two goals from Michail Antonio were enough to beat AEK Larnaca 2-0 in the first leg of their last-16 encounter in Cyprus. The forward headed in Saïd Benrahma’s cross to put the visitors ahead after 36 minutes, then curled home a beauty from 20 yards just before half-time.
'I’m really pleased with the result,' said Moyes after a sunny away day that felt a world apart from the recent 4-0 defeat at Brighton. 'I didn’t enjoy long parts of the performance, but the most important thing is to come away and win.'
'Not many managers and players get to back-to-back European quarter-finals. We’ve still got work to do to get there, but it’s not a bad achievement. We need to embrace it, enjoy it. There’s something different about Europe, even in a small stadium like tonight.'
On Antonio's winning double, Moyes added: 'I’m glad he has that in him because we needed it tonight. It’s good for Mick’s confidence as goals haven’t come easy for him and he’s very important for us.'
Alphonse Areola even gave a young pitch invader from the home end his shirt as he was being marched off by security. 'I saw him behind my back and saw him with the security,' said the French keeper. 'He wanted my shirt so I gave it to him.'
United’s other goals came from Marcus Rashford and Wout Weghorst, with Ayoze Pérez scoring Betis’s only goal. The home side were loudly backed by the Old Trafford crowd.
“I was curious about that,” Ten Hag said about the supporters’ possible reaction, “and I was pleased by the response from the crowd to the team. From minute one they were behind the team, the team gave energy by performance and they gave it back. There is a great bond between the team and the fans and we are pleased by that.”
