Bruno Fernandes was one of the heroes of Manchester United’s comeback in Tuesday night’s match against AS Roma. After the match, he dismissed media reports of a fallout with United head coach Michael Carrick as a “lot of lies”.
Portuguese ace and Manchester United club captain Fernandes made the remarks after scoring the opening goal in their remarkable Champions League comeback victory over Roma on Tuesday evening.
Back in October, Fernandes seemingly questioned Carrick’s tactics following the heavy 4-1 Champions League defeat to Como. He was subsequently dropped for the Red Devils’ next outing against Bournemouth. But rather than blaming any tension for his removal from the starting 11, the 32-year-old has claimed that it was his own poor performances that were the root cause.
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“There’s been a lot of speculation in the media, a lot of lies around many things that have happened at this club,” Fernandes said.
“Between me and the manager, there were reports that we had cleared the air afterwards, when none of that happened. The manager made the decision to put me on the bench because I wasn’t performing that well.”
Having been restored to the team for the visit of Roma in the Champions League, Fernandes responded with a goal from the penalty spot as United bounced back from going 2-0 down to power to a 3-2 victory.
Cunha ensured a tense finale
Matheus Cunha bagged a brace on a rollercoaster night at Old Trafford, before being sent off in injury time for picking up a second yellow card.
But the final whistle blew, Cunha returned to the pitch to celebrate the win with his teammates – flouting a little-known rule which dictates red-carded players must remain in the dressing room or ‘spectator area’ until all of the players and officials have left the field.
Carrick approached Cunha and told him to head down the tunnel, which seemed to inflame the Brazilian, who furiously left the pitch while appearing to mouth obscenities towards his head coach.