Captain Bruno Fernandes’ hat-trick helped Manchester United beat Real Sociedad 3-1 in the second leg of the ongoing Europa League. The Red Devils will next face Olympique Lyon in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Manchester United are going through plenty of problems at the moment. They are placed 14th in the Premier League and several off-the-field decisions have bothered the team severely in the last few months. Amid that, the team produced a terrific performance over Real Sociedad, beating them 4-1 in the second leg at Old Trafford to qualify for the quarter-finals of the Europa League.
They were punished early for a foul committed by Matthijs de Ligt in the penalty box and Mikel Oyarzabal made no mistake to turn that into a goal. After that, United took control of the game and scored a goal only six minutes after conceding. Casemiro found Bruno with a lob, who then played a through pass to Rasmus Højlund but he was brought down in the penalty box and United were offered a penalty.
Bruno Fernandes converted that to level things. They went on to create several more opportunities in the half but Højlund and Joshua Zirkzee failed to convert them. United pressed harder in the second leg and interestingly, they were offered a second penalty in the 50th minute. It was a controversial call from the referee and the decision could have gone either way. Nevertheless, Bruno scored his second to put United ahead.
More chances were created but United failed to convert them. Bruno eventually went on to score his third in the 87th minute. Alejandro Garnacho found the captain who placed it well to help United take a 3-1 lead in the series. In the dying minutes, Diogo Dalot made it 4-1 as United qualified for the quarters, where they will play Olympique Lyon.
La Real meanwhile weren’t impressed by the referring decisions but their performance without the ball wasn’t impressive either. United put the pressure on after concerning in the 10th minute and for the majority part, Sociedad had no answer to that.
