James rejects Bruno Fernandes’s bad touch claims after Man Utd win

Daniel James has dismissed Bruno Fernandes’s theory that the Welsh winger unintentionally set-up Manchester United’s second goal versus Real Sociedad on Thursday evening.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side claimed a comfortable 4-0 win over their Spanish opponents in the Europa League, courtesy of goals from Fernandes (2), James and Marcus Rashford.

Fernandes put United a goal ahead in the contest and doubled the lead after quick-thinking saw him sweep home a first-time shot following James’ initial contact with the ball.

The Portuguese international was originally flagged for offside before a VAR check reversed this decision, with James adamant that his intentions were always to set-up his teammate.

“I always knew I was onside, when I heard it was Bruno being checked I knew he was behind me so I knew it was going to be a goal. I was just thinking about the assist, I meant to touch it to him,” he told MUTV.

James added a goal of his own in the final minute of the match, making amends for earlier misses and placing Solskjaer’s side in a position of power ahead of the second leg with Sociedad next week.

“I think Bruno was annoyed with me that I didn’t get him an assist at the end but it was nice to go through and score," said the former Swansea City winger.

“I want to do the best I can when I’m on the pitch, I was frustrated that the chance I got from Bruno I didn’t finish so I wanted to take the next one."

Recognising the importance of Thursday’s scoreline and explaining how United executed their game plan to effect, the 23-year-old added: “It was a great result for us, we knew it was going to be difficult and they’d have a lot of the ball but we knew there'd be big spaces behind them and that’s what we had to capitalise on," he said.

“At times it can be frustrating if they have the ball for a bit, we knew as soon as we won it back we had to go forward, they play a very high line and we had to exploit that. First-half we were a bit annoyed we didn’t score more but we came out in the second half and capitalised a bit more."

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