Manchester United have booked a place in the Europa League semi-final after the most stressful and euphoric ending to a match in recent times. Having gone 2-0 up and cruising, United found themselves 4-2 down with just over five minutes of extra-time to play. Bruno Fernandes scored a penalty but it looked like there was still too much to do, even while hoping for just one more goal to take the game ot penalties.
Ruben Amorim had sent on Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire, and the former scored the equaliser before the latter won it in injury time of extra time. The sound inside Old Trafford was incredible.
Amorim spoke to the press after the game.
I think, if you see the goal of Kobbie and Harry Maguire, the sound of the stadium was the best sound I ever [heard]. You want to keep that. Sometimes people want to keep a lot of things, shirts and, I just want to keep that sound. It’s the best sound in the world. It’s a special moment. It was amazing. When you score two goals in the end, like that, you hear the sound of the fans and it pays off any suffering or frustration you have during the season. And, we know again, we know that we are underperforming. We deserve all the critics, but we still have time to make something special of this season, so we have to think like that and to be positive.
United now face Athletic Club in the semis, who are currently fourth in La Liga, and Amorim acknowledges it will be tough but that anything is possible.
You can see in the stadium. So, everybody in the moment can believe that it’s possible. We need to be a little bit lucky on the injuries, to reach that, with some players it is going to be tough. But, I had, in my career, one final, and I had the semi-final in Turin [playing for Benfica in the 2014 Europa League], and the final was in Turin. So, we lost the final [to Sevilla], so let’s change that. It could be the same as the coach.
Anything is possible, you saw it today. Of course, the opponents are really good but we are here to fight. Even if we don’t play perfect football, we can show the character. The character of the players was the main thing tonight. We have to focus as we are going to the semi-finals and you don’t win anything [for that], of course. This is mainly going to give us confidence and a clear target for these final games.
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