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Ruben Amorim called Manchester United’s last-gasp 2-1 Europa League victory over Rangers one his side “truly needed” amid their domestic struggles.
Bruno Fernandes popped up with a stoppage-time winner moments after Cyriel Dessers had struck for injury-hit Rangers to cancel out a bizarre own goal from United’s former back-up goalkeeper Jack Butland.
The win moves United up to fourth in the Europa League standings, a point next week away to FCSB in Bucharest likely to be enough to ensure progress to the Round of 16, and spared Amorim more awkward questions days after he called his side “maybe” the worst in club history before stepping back.
United had looked to be in control after Butland, outstanding for much of the night, had somehow contrived to punch Christian Eriksen’s inswinging corner into his own net in the 52nd minute, a horrible moment for a man who spent six months on loan at United in 2023 without playing.
Dessers then capitalised on a mistake from Harry Maguire to score an 88th-minute goal which threated to push United out of the top eight, but Fernandes had the final word to the relief of his manager.
“We didn’t deserve that draw at the moment, it was fair for us to win the game, a game we knew is tough,” Amorim said.
“We started well, the pace of the game helped us because it’s different and you could feel it, we tried to do things, we were better with the ball, sometimes we control it well…and sometimes we lose control, but I think we created the best chances to win the game and we deserved to win.”
When Amorim was at Braga early in his career Rangers were the only side to inflict defeat upon him, not once but twice in the Europa League under Steven Gerrard.
But when asked if this result gave him a measure of revenge, Amorim said: “No, it was a long time ago…I was not thinking about that. This was a victory that we truly needed in this moment.”
While Marcus Rashford was not in the squad at all, Alejandro Garnacho started the game amid speculation linking him with Napoli and Chelsea, and was one of United’s better performers.
“He’s here, he’s a player for Manchester United,” Amorim said. “He was really important for us today and let’s see in the next days.”
Butland returned to make his first appearance in a month after a leg problem and made a string of good saves, keeping out efforts from Lisandro Martinez, Amad Diallo and Manuel Ugarte, only for it to all go wrong when he went to punch Eriksen’s corner and the ball skimmed off his glove.
“Jack saved us a few times also in the second half so that is the life of a goalkeeper,” Philippe Clement said. “I am not going to be focused solely on that.”
Rangers had travelled south without eight players amid an injury crisis, and were forced to replace Leon Balogun and Connor Barron at half-time, asking youngsters Ross McCausland and Bailey Rice to play out of position.
“Everybody is gutted in the dressing room, disappointed that we lost after playing that sort of game,” Clement added. “Clearly you want to win, but on the other hand I’m very proud of what the team did today. It was about sticking to the plan, following the tactics all the way.
“I think in the first half we had the better chances to take the lead and in the second half we go behind because Manchester were playing better than us, but we didn’t stop believing and we continued going for the goal.
“It’s really disappointing to take the second goal at the end but there’s a lot of positives with this young group.”
