Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes has revealed the reason behind him handing Marcus Rashford a penalty in their convincing victory over Istanbul Basaksehir on Tuesday night.
The 4-1 Champions League win sees them edge closer to qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition, but many were surprised about the charitable act given scoring it would have given the Portuguese ace a first-half hat-trick.
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Fernandes had already fired two strikes home, including a thunderbolt into the top corner, but it turned out that once more his focus was all on the team rather than personal accolades.
Asked if he was feeling charitable, Fernandes told BT Sport: “No, that wasn’t the point.
“Every player wants to do a hat-trick, you know, but after the game in the Premier League [against West Brom] I told Rashy the next one he will take so I remembered that.
“And also because Rashy is one of the top scorers in the Champions League I think it will be important for him to keep going there and take on that confidence.
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“As I said, it doesn’t matter who takes the penalty, the most important thing is scoring and the team scores. When the team scores, I score.”
Had Rashford missed it might have been a different story but United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer understood his midfielder’s act of altruism.
He told BT Sport: “Marcus is a very good penalty taker as well. Bruno is very confident so if Bruno feels he wants to give it to Marcus, so be it.
“Anthony [Martial] had one against Leipzig, so why not? They can share them around.”
The 26-year-old’s impact since arriving at Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon in January has been simply phenomenal.
Fernandes has been directly involved in 34 goals in 35 appearances for Manchester United (21 goals, 13 assists) since his big-money transfer to England.
He has also reached 20 goals for the Red Devils in fewer games (35) than any other midfielder in the club’s history.
Even at the full £67.7million – if all clauses are met – Fernandes is worth every single penny.
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