Bruno Fernandes warned his team-mates that their Europa League last-32 tie with Real Sociedad is still very much alive despite their 4-0 win in the first leg and said the squad must ‘grow up’ after recent poor results.
The midfielder was once again in good form and gave Manchester United a healthy lead with a pair of well-taken goals in either side of half-time in Turin on Thursday.
Marcus Rashford finished off a swift counter-attacking move in the 64th minute and Daniel James also got a goal from a tight angle to give Solskjaer’s side a four-goal advantage.
Asked what pleased him about the game, Fernandes said: ‘The result, of course. It’s about winning, we want to win games and today we did.
‘I think everything is well, the result is on our side but we have the second leg and still we have a tough game to do again in our home and win again to go through.
‘We know 4-0 is a good result but we have to be aware of what Real Sociedad can do and be ready for the second leg.’
United had had just two wins their last six matches heading into the Europa League game and Fernandes insisted there was still room for improvement.
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‘I think we don’t have to look to the results. I have to look at the performance,’ he added. ‘We know we don’t perform well in some games. But still in some games we don’t get the result we want and we perform well.
‘So we need to understand we have to grow up, we have to get better and better. ‘And of course, the most important thing is the results and it gives you more confidence to go to the next games and try to win again.’
Though Fernandes seemed to hesitate after a knock from Real Sociedad keeper Alex Remiro for his opening goal, he claimed he was only waiting for the ‘right moment’ to strike the ball.
‘No, I was just waiting for the right moment for the ball to come down and wait for the right moment to kick,’ he explained.
‘If you rush sometimes in that moment, you can take a wrong shot and the ball goes out. ‘So I just waited for the right time to kick it.’
