Manchester United sustained their third straight defeat last night when their Champions League opener finished 4-3 in Bayern Munich’s favour.
The Red Devils will feel aggrieved to have walked away with nothing despite finding the back of the net three times throughout the tie.
It comes at a time when the side have been plagued by injuries and fitness woes, so Erik ten Hag is yet to deploy his strongest starting XI this term. He’ll be hoping that form picks up when players gradually return to the fold.
Qualification from the group stage is still more than achievable though and hopefully, United have found their bearings before their next outing in Europe; they host Galatasaray at Old Trafford on October 3.
Fernandes reacts to Bayern defeat
Speaking post-match, Fernandes admitted that the loss left a sour taste, but opted to take the positives.
“It’s really difficult to take this one. We knew it would be difficult to play against Bayern, we know that they have such a great team. When you give so much space for them and time to think, they’re going to hurt you. We started the game… 1-0 down, 2-0 down. We came back in the second half, 2-1, we concede an early goal again. Came back again on the 3-2 and obviously concede again. But I think overall, we stayed in the game. We could’ve hurt them a little bit more, be a little bit more patient on the ball, but I think there are many good things to take from this game.”
“We want to be dominant, we want to be on the ball,” the captain continued. “We knew that Bayern were going to press high in the first few minutes because when they play at home, it’s always like this. We tried to keep on the ball and find spaces where we could hurt them. We had a big chance in the beginning where we could go 1-0, but we didn’t score and after Bayern had that chance, they scored. Obviously, it’s always different coming from behind against Bayern.
“We don’t have to think about injured players, we have enough players to give a response on the pitch. Obviously, we want to have everyone fit and as much [many] players as possible, and we know we have some important players injured but that’s not an excuse to not win games.”
Footage courtesy of TNT Sports.