Bruno Fernandes had captained Manchester United during their trip to Craven Cottage to face Fulham in their last EPL game for the year, 2022 before the World Cup break.
And speaking after an interesting battle on the day against Marco Silva and his men that saw United on the back foot for much of the second half before snatching all three points via Alejandro Garnacho’s dramatic stoppage time winner.
Fernandes explained while discussing United’s man of the hour: “He has a lot of talent and obviously his work rate together with the talent makes a difference for us, it not the first time he makes a big impact for us and we know he can give us goals and assists.”
“I think everyone is seeing signs of that, not because of goals and assists – coming from bench, no one likes to be on the bench so the attitude he has when comes off bench has been fantastic, so he deserves the rewards he is getting.”
Christian Eriksen had put the Red Devils in front relatively early on as he latched on to a deflected Fernandes pass to tap beyond the helpless Bernd Leno. That however did not dent the hosts confidence as United had got David de Gea to thank after Fulham had persistently pushed for an equalizer.
United’s goalkeeper looked to be in inspired form at times, thwarting solid efforts from the likes of Carlos Vinicius and Tim Ream, but he was eventually beaten by Dan James just minutes after the Welshman was introduced off the bench.
The ex-Old Trafford talent was quickest to respond to an inviting pass across the face of goal and squeezed his close range effort past the Spanish shot-stopper.
He may have thought he had proved to be the hero for Fulham when he levelled things in the second half, but it wasn’t to be.
Garnacho was set to be the star of the show with his dramatic winner right at the very death – marking the Argentine’s first Premier League goal for the club. He was put through on goal after a neat one-two with Eriksen and kept his composure to calmly dispatch his effort.
The teenage sensation was mobbed by his teammates come the full-time whistle as well as his manager.
At just 18 years of age, the former Atletico Madrid academy prospect displays the kind of confidence that borders on arrogance every young talent requires to make it to the very top of the game.