In retaliation, Nuno Espirito Santo refuted Erik ten Hag’s assertion that his Nottingham Forest teammates purposefully singled out Bruno Fernandes during the FA Cup match last night.
Casemiro’s late strike was sufficient to give United a victory that lifted spirits and set up a lucrative quarterfinal matchup between Old Trafford and Liverpool.
But the victory came at a price: after being spotted hobbling out of the City Ground, Fernandes is now questionable for this weekend’s Manchester Derby.
Despite having an injury, Fernandes said he was well enough to play last night, and his skillfully placed free kick helped set up the game-winning goal in a match that had appeared to go into overtime.
The United manager later acknowledged that Fernandes’ injury was serious and charged Forest with treating the Portugal international unfairly.
“He has a serious injury, but he fought to be part of this game and played on Saturday [against Fulham],” the statement read. His pain threshold is really high.
He performed a similar act against Spurs and, I believe, in the semifinals last year. It demonstrates his leadership.
He was fouled on numerous occasions. They are pretty tight on him while he is receiving the ball, as you can see.
When asked about his reaction to the assertion made by his opponent, Nuno replied, “No, I don’t think so, I don’t think so.”
He is an excellent player. He’s a talented player who needs to be controlled, and I believe Danilo and Yates accomplished that today as well, albeit fairly—they never caused any issues or attempted to harm him. What Erik saw was not what I saw.
Raphael Varane also put his body on the line yesterday night to help his United team advance to the round of eight, so Fernandes wasn’t the only elite player to play through discomfort.
Ten Hag was thrilled with the former Real Madrid center-half’s performance, as the seasoned French defender was instrumental in containing the threat of a Forest attack that put United to the sword in their most recent league encounter.
“It was not easy, especially in the back four where we had serious issues,” he remarked. I’m thrilled that Bruno suffered a serious injury as well as Rapha’s determination to play his game.
“He battled to participate in the game.” I’m thrilled that he could help Casemiro achieve his goal.
