Marcus Rashford was ALWAYS going to take Manchester United’s next penalty, reveals Bruno Fernandes after passing up on a hat-trick to keep up his team-mate’s ‘confidence’
Marcus Rashford was always going to take Manchester United’s next penalty, according to Bruno Fernandes.
United’s midfield star Fernandes could have sealed a hat-trick when Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side were awarded a spot-kick in the 35th minute of their 4-1 win over Istanbul Basaksehir on Tuesday night.
Instead striker Rashford stepped up from 12 yards and Fernandes revealed after the game that was always the plan.
Forward Marcus Rashford was always going to take Manchester United’s next penalty
Midfielder Bruno Fernandes (C) picked up the ball and gave it to Rashford (not in picture)
‘Of course, every player wants to score a hat-trick, you know?’ Fernandes told BT Sport.
‘But after the game (against West Brom) in the Premier League I told Rashy he will take the next one. I remembered that.
‘Also Rashy is one of the top scorers in the Champions League so I think it will be important for him to keep going there and taking that confidence.
Fernandes celebrates with Rashford after the striker netted United’s third goal in 4-1 victory
‘As I say, it doesn’t matter who takes the penalties, the most important (thing) is scoring. When the team scores, I score too.’
Fernandes scored the winner from the spot in United’s 1-0 win over West Brom last weekend.
Sam Johnstone palmed Fernandes’ first penalty effort away, but was penalised for straying off his line during the midfielder’s run-up, and Fernandes scored with the retake.
It is not the first time he has missed his first penalty and then scored when ordered to retake this campaign. He saw his first effort saved by Keylor Navas in United’s 2-1 win over Paris Saint-Germain last month but again was given the chance to redeem himself by the officials.
Fernandes scored from the spot in 1-0 win over West Brom last weekend but only after retake
The Portuguese has scored four penalties so far this season and missed one – in United’s 4-1 win over Newcastle – however his spot-kick technique has created controversy.
Ian Wright has called for Fernandes’ jumping penalty technique to be banned after he used it twice during the narrow win over West Brom as the Arsenal legend insisted the spot-kick style favoured by Chelsea midfielder Jorginho isn’t ‘fair’ on goalkeepers.
‘It is [difficult for goalkeepers],’ Wright said on BBC’s Match of the Day.
‘And then you’ve got forwards jumping up, doing this, doing that sort of stuff and the goalie can’t move his foot off.
‘They should stop people jumping and that, they should have to make a full… just run at the ball and hit it. If they can move and the goalies can’t, that’s not fair.’
He missed his first effort against PSG as well last month but scored when ordered to retake
When asked by fellow pundit Gary Lineker: ‘Are you going to have a law that says you can’t jump?’
Wright replied saying: ‘Yeah, you have to go straight through your penalty run-up, no jumping.’
Fernandes had put United 2-0 up within the first 20 minutes in their Champions League clash on Tuesday and Rashford added the third from the spot before half-time. Deniz Turuc pulled a goal back for the visitors but Daniel James rounded off a comfortable win in stoppage time.
The victory moved United three points clear at the top of Champions League Group H with two matches remaining.
Fernandes could have sealed hat-trick from the spot after scoring two goals in first 20 minutes
