Bruno Fernandes confession: ‘I was lucky on first penalty, then made a decision’
Bruno Fernandes explained what went through his mind when retaking that penalty to revive Manchester United with Roma. ‘I was lucky honestly, but the second time I made a decision.’
The Giallorossi had been dominating at Old Trafford in the Champions League this evening, leading 2-0 after 18 minutes with a Matias Soulé strike and Donyell Malen spot-kick.
Manchester United were given the opportunity to get back into it with a soft penalty, but Bruno Fernandes saw his effort parried by Devis Vasquez.
As Bryan Cristante encroached to make the clearance on the rebound, VAR ruled it had to be retaken, and this time Bruno Fernandes converted to start the comeback, eventually winning 3-2.
Bruno Fernandes confession
“I knew it was a big responsibility, it could’ve changed the game and we really needed a goal to get the crowd behind us at that moment,” Bruno Fernandes told Sky Sport Italia.
“The penalty is always a stressful moment, because it is just you against the goalkeeper and nobody else can help in that situation.
“I was lucky honestly that Cristante went into the box too early, so it gave me an opportunity to take it again. The second time, I decided to pick a spot and hit it as hard as I could without trying to second-guess where the goalkeeper was going.”
After the 4-1 defeat to Como in the Champions League, it was reported the Manchester United staff refused to let Bruno Fernandes speak to the local media in Italian, even though he spent many years in Serie A and B.
Evidently something changed, because the Portugal international was able to converse in Italian this evening and discussed the current crisis at Manchester United, who had been without a win since September 10.
“It is a very important win, because obviously things aren’t going the way we want them to. We aim to do one thing and we do another, we concede goals at the start of games, it is a truly difficult moment, but we must try to get ourselves out of it,” added the midfielder.
“I hope this can give us the confidence to go forward and do better, because there is quality in this squad, we saw what we did last season and it’s not possible that it all just disappeared.
“These are the same players as before, we have added some good quality over the summer, and we need to keep going.”
