Manchester United star Bruno Fernandes hails ‘dream come true’ despite Liverpool loss

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Manchester United playmaker Bruno Fernandes named it a “dream come true” to be named the stand-in captain against Liverpool, despite being heavily beaten without Harry Maguire. The Red Devils lost 4-2 to their rivals to suffer a second straight defeat and were sloppy defensively in the absence of their usual skipper, with Dean Henderson required to make several saves to prevent the scoreline being even further in their rivals’ favour.

United took the lead through Fernandes after just 10 minutes but found themselves 3-1 down by the second minute of the second half, with Roberto Firmino scoring twice either side of the break after Diogo Jota had levelled.

Marcus Rashford offered hope of a United fightback when he made it 3-2 with time on the clock but Mohamed Salah killed the game late on after a counter-attack as United suffered a first Old Trafford defeat to the Reds since 2014.

Despite the result, which keeps Liverpool’s hopes of joining the Red Devils in the Champions League next season alive, Fernandes was ecstatic to again wear the armband.

The 26-year-old also led his team-mates on in the opening Champions League group stage win over Paris Saint-Germain in the French capital back in October.

After being captain a second time, United’s talismanic attacker said to MUTV: “Everyone knows it’s the biggest honour to have the armband in a game for the club.

“I’m another one [to do it] and I’m really proud of that. After Paris it’s another dream come true.”

Portugal international Fernandes’ latest strike puts him on 28 goals and 17 assists in 56 appearances across all competitions this season.

Eighteen of those goals have come in the Premier League which put him three behind joint Golden Boot leaders Salah and Tottenham’s Harry Kane, a United transfer target.

But his opener could not prevent Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side suffering their second straight reverse having lost 2-1 to Leicester at Old Trafford on Tuesday night.

Fernandes added of United’s hopes of bouncing back from successive losses: “The confidence has to be high, we know what we’ve done all season.

“A defeat hurts a lot but we have to learn from those and not be disappointed into the next game and afraid of doing something.

“We know we’re not at our best yet, it’s time to keep improving from the mistakes we made.”

Solskjaer meanwhile told Sky Sports that Liverpool were the deserving victors in Manchester as he admitted his United side caused their own problems.

“They [Liverpool] deserved the win,” the Norwegian coach said. We conceded goals in key moments of the game.

“We didn’t build on the momentum or break up their momentum. We gave them at least two goals really.

“Then we scored again, had a massive chance… Key moments went against us. Their shape and their pressing is very aggressive. We created our own downfall.

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“The second goal you probably expect no foul there then it’s a bad moment to concede just before half-time. The third goal we gave them and that’s really poor.”

He added of the absent Harry Maguire: “Harry has been really important for us so of course we’re going to miss him but he’s out so we have to deal with that.

“It’s about regrouping and building our own confidence again as we have two games and a final.

“The attitude was right and the focus was fine, we were ready for it. We didn’t build on the good times.

“We should have gone more for it at the start of the game. Sometimes we let them off the hook and let them play out.

“Tuesday, we need to find ourselves straight away. We need to build that momentum and confidence. We should go into that final ready.”

United face already-relegated Fulham at Old Trafford next up before ending the league season away at Wolves a week on Sunday.

They then go head-to-head with Unai Emery’s Villarreal in the Europa League final on Wednesday May 26 in Gdansk, Poland (8pm kick-off).

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