Ruben Amorim has revealed the ruthless message he delivered to the Manchester United dressing room after an impressive 3-0 away win against Athletic Club.
Manchester United took a big step toward the Europa League final with a 3-0 win over Athletic Club in the first leg of their semi-final clash.
United thought they had made the perfect start with a goal inside four minutes, but it was ruled out for offside. After some errors across the pitch, Casemiro managed to break the deadlock with a header after some brilliant wing-play from Harry Maguire.
Moments later, Rasmus Hojlund earned a penalty after being brought down, and Daniel Vivian was shown a red card. Bruno Fernandes calmly converted the penalty, then struck again just before half-time to make it 3-0 and give United firm control of the tie.
Although they pushed for a fourth in the second half, United couldn’t add to their tally. Still, they’ll return to Old Trafford with a commanding lead.
Amorim reveals ruthless message he told United squad
Despite the positive result, this United side cannot afford any complacency heading into the second-leg at Old Trafford.
It was evident versus Lyon that teams can score against this team and turn things around but Amorim is trying to ensure that his players know the task at hand when they return to play against the Spanish side next week.
The United boss has revealed that he has told his players to think more about the opening stages of the game, where mistakes were made before the red card, rather than what happened when they were playing against 10 men.
“I think they [United players] have to think about the second leg and they have to think more about the first 20 minutes then the rest of the game because the game is going to be really tough,” Amorim told reporters.
“There is no away goals so anything can change, that is my message to the to the players and we have to to think now about for Brentford and then for the second leg.”
United cannot give away this lead…
Surely this United side cannot give away this lead at home, right?
We were all begging for a fourth goal for that exact reason. There would certainly be some nerves if the La Liga side open the scoring early on next week.
That is why United need to be even better than they were in Spain and put the tie to bed. Opening the scoring would be huge for Amorim’s side.
Getting the likes of Amad and Matthijs de Ligt back fit is another boost and the Reds will feel confident heading into that game and will be eyeing a return to Bilbao for the final later this month.
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