April 23, (THEWILL) –Â Â Ralf Rangnick, Manchester United’s interim manager, has revealed why Bruno Fernandes, rather than Cristiano Ronaldo, took and missed the crucial penalty in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Arsenal.
Gunners had a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Nuno Tavares and Bukayo Saka, but Ronaldo equalised just before halftime with his 100th Premier League goal.
After the break, United were awarded a penalty after Tavares handled the ball in his own area, and Fernandes stepped up to take the penalty, but his shot hit the outside of the post and went wide even with Aaron Ramsdale completely beaten.
With 20 minutes remaining, Granit Xhaka settled the score with a 25-yard screamer, emphasising how important Fernandes’ error was for the result the Gunners earned.
“It’s between both of them. Both are penalty takers and Cristiano said to me after the game that he didn’t feel well enough in order to take it and that’s why Bruno took it,” Rangnick responded, when asked who decided on who was going to be taking penalties.
“In the end, it was about two or three yards a little further to the right but he sent the goalkeeper into the other corner but it only hit the post.”
Rangnick also expressed his dissatisfaction with critical decisions that went against United. Eddie Nketiah blocked David de Gea’s view in an offside position for Xhaka’s winner, Ronaldo’s second goal was ruled out for the tiniest of offsides, a handball against Cedric went unpunished, and Anthony Elanga was hauled down by Tavares barely inside the box.
“The decisions definitely did not go our way, but we don’t expect them to happen in our way.
“But there were three if not four questionable decisions, the third goal was offside, Cristiano’s second goal was not offside after having seen the video footage, there was another handball in the first half plus a situation on Anthony Elanga – all four of them went against us.
“But this is what happens if you are in a situation as we are right now.”
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
