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Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes has challenged Rasmus Hojlund to kick on and start scoring regularly after he found the back of the net against Bournemouth.
Fernandes made these remarks after United’s 1-1 draw with the Cherries at the Vitality Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Hojlund equalised deep into added time as the visitors took advantage of the dismissal of Bournemouth striker Evanilson.
The Red Devils were on course for a 16th defeat of their worst Premier League season after gifting Antoine Semenyo a 23rd-minute opener, but Evanilson’s 70th-minute red card for a lunging challenge on Noussair Mazraoui tipped the scales, allowing Ruben Amorim’s men to snatch a valuable point.
The goal was just Hojlund’s fourth in the Premier League this season and his second in four months.
In his press conference, Amorim praised Hojlund for breaking his goal drought, although he stopped short of admitting that he kept him on the pitch for as long as possible to give him a chance to score.
Fernandes spoke to MUTV and had his say on Hojlund and the result at the Vitality Stadium.
“We were down in the game, we had to try to get some result from this. We knew how tough it is to play here against them, obviously them having a great season, doing very well. Different moments for both teams but we are really aware of what we had to do.”
“I think we create a lot but again we couldn’t score as many as what we wanted but at the end we got the goal to at least get the point from this today.”
Fernandes boldly opined that even before Bournemouth went a man down, United were doing well.
“We felt that at 11 against 11 we were doing well, we could create space for ourselves, we were getting into their box.”
“Everything was just missing a little bit – getting more bodies into the box, creating more danger. We did that with 11 v 11 but we didn’t score.”
“But at the end we got our goal, [it] probably was a little bit too late to get the win, because I think if we had a little bit more time to push after the goal, we could have won the game.”
On Hojlund, the United midfielder noted, “Strikers are about scoring goals and we all know that, he knows the responsibility of being the No.9 of United and he has to score goals, that’s the demand of a club like this, not only for him, but for everyone else.”
“Everyone that plays here who has the qualities to get into the box to score goals has to do it. Today, it was Rasmus, and everyone is very happy to see a striker scoring and hopefully it’s going to give him a little bit of a push for what’s coming.”
United are back in action on Thursday when they go away to Spain to face Athletic Club in the first leg of their Europa League semi-final tie.
Looking ahead to the meeting, Fernandes remarked, “We haven’t spoke about it yet. Obviously now, from tomorrow [Monday] on, we have to start recovering, focus on what we have to do against Athletic.”
“It’s going to be a very tough game, we know that they play at home and they will play the final at home if they beat us. For us, it’s giving the chances to our fans to travel two times to Bilbao.”
United are 14th in the Premier League with 39 points gained and four games left to play.
Feature image Ryan Pierse via Getty Images
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