Manchester United suffered a crushing defeat to FC Copenhagen in the Champions League last night, losing a back-and-forth encounter by four goals to three.
On a dramatic evening in the Danish capital, United were in control of proceedings until the 42nd minute when Marcus Rashford was shown a controversial red card.
The United man was dismissed with his side two goals to the good and looking likely to put their hosts to the sword.
However, a lengthy period of added on time at the end of the first period allowed Copenhagen to draw level before the break after Rashford’s red and completely change the momentum of the game.
A possible offside for Copenhagen’s opener and controversial penalty for the equalizer did nothing for United’s mood going into the break with lady luck well and truly deserting Erik ten Hag’s side.
Bruno Fernandes did put United back in front midway through the second half but it wasn’t enough as the Danes scored twice in the last seven minutes to win the game.
Speaking to MUTV, the captain opened up on the disappointment after the defeat and feels his side deserved something for their efforts.
“It’s disappointment, obviously, I think for everything we did in the game, we could, and should, have got something from the game,” he said.
Fernandes praised his teammates for the spirit showed with 10 men and bemoaned the decisions that went against them on the night.
“It’s difficult at the moment, obviously the mood is not the best because we’ve fought so hard with 10 men that even from then, it was playing against a team that plays really good on the ball and apart from that many decisions was against us,” said Bruno.
The Portuguese midfielder then issued a rallying cry to his teammates, urging them to keep believing they can get out of the group.
“Even before this game, that was still the belief; to win the last three games of the group stage. And now we have two, we have to win them if we want to keep in the Champions League and stay in the best competition, we have to win against the best,” he said.
Should United win the final two fixtures they will qualify for the knockout phase but the difficulty of the opponents does leave their backs against the wall.
Bruno acknowledged the size of the task head but insists United are looking no further than the weekend visit of Luton Town and says they will use that game to get back to winning ways.
“We have a very tough game away against Galatasaray, and after, we play against the top of the group.
We want to win both, but now we have to focus on Luton because it’s going to be a tough game again, we need three points in the league, we need to get back to the winning track after this defeat and keeping the winning track in the Premier League,” he added.
United entertain Luton in a 3pm (GMT) kick-off on Saturday.