Friday 18 April 2025 00:10
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Ruben Amorim knows Manchester United never say die and he was so proud of his players for somehow prolonging our Europa League adventure on a madcap night at Old Trafford.
The bare facts of the matter are a 5-4 victory, after extra-time, was enough to clinch a 7-6 aggregate triumph over the much-respected French side.
Yet that only scratches the surface of what happened which is still scarcely believable some time after the final whistle.
From 4-2 down, United scored three times without reply, through Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire, to turn the tie on its head completely.
For some context, Opta Joe posted to say it was the first match in European football history to feature five goals scored in extra-time.
See a selection of what Ruben had to say to the official broadcasters afterwards…
TRY SUMMING THAT UP
“No, was hard. I was watching again the ’99, the documentary [when we completed the Treble by beating Bayern Munich with two late goals in the Nou Camp], so to have some inspiration for this moment. But, was a great night. I think the team were tired and you feel it during the game, and then 4-2 with one more player and, in the end, you think it’s over. But here, it’s never over.”
THE THINKING BEHIND THE TACTICS
“We tried to put Harry Maguire [up there] because he’s the only guy that can score a goal with his headers. And then Kobbie Mainoo, he has a lack of pace in this moment because he had that injury and he stopped for a while, but he’s really good on short spaces, and then he has the ability to do that kind of goal. And then we try it, and sometimes it works, and today was a good day.”
THE SQUAD IS STRETCHED
“When you are here, you can feel that playing Premier League and European games is really hard. If you don’t have the full squad, it is almost impossible. Mason Mount brings us experience. You can see Luke Shaw. Luke Shaw was meant to play 30 minutes, top, but then we had a problem with news at half-time, Vic had a personal problem, he had to leave. Nous too. So, all this stuff happening during this game, but, in the end, it was a good day.”
GARNACHO WAS TIRED
“The reflection of the coach is the league. You can be good in your European games, but your reflection as the team is the league and we are underperforming. But then we have to see the context. You can see that we lack a lot of characteristics in our team. You want to push forward and sometimes you see Garna really tired, but you feel during the game he’s the only one who can make transitions.”
NAME ON THE TROPHY?
“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.”
BOTTLE THAT NOISE
“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.”
WHAT ABOUT ATHLETIC CLUB?
“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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Friday 18 April 2025 00:10
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