Bruno Fernandes sends five-word message after putting Man Utd misery behind him
Bruno Fernandes captained Manchester United during their awful season, but successfully put that behind him to play a key role as Portugal won the Nations League final on Sunday
Manchester United skipper Bruno Fernandes admitted "winning for Portugal is different" as he put his club's difficult season behind him by winning the Nations League on Sunday night. Fernandes played 57 games in all competitions for United this campaign.
It was a miserable year for the Red Devils as they finished 15th in the Premier League and failed to win a major trophy. Fernandes captained United in all of his appearances and even held talks over a potential exit earlier this summer.
Instead the midfielder has decided to stay at Old Trafford for the foreseeable future. Fernandes has moved his focus to international duty, where Portugal were featuring in the Nations League finals.
They beat hosts Germany in the semi-finals to set up a date with bitter rivals Spain in Sunday's final. Fernandes started at the Allianz Arena, taking over the armband after Cristiano Ronaldo was substituted off.
The United star then stepped up to score a crucial penalty in the shootout which Portugal won to lift the trophy. And Fernandes has insisted the win has helped him put United's dreadful campaign behind him.
'I'm going to celebrate with my teammates and my family. It's a special moment for everyone. Winning for Portugal is different. It's for our family, for our people, for the country, for our people," he said
"Once again, the wave of red that I saw so much on social media was there and made us feel like we were playing at home. Thank you very much for all the support, it was excellent. We felt it, from start to finish, from the moment we got to the end.
'Everything we did during the game helped us win. We knew we were going up against a great team, and at the same time we knew we were a team of the same level. We knew Spain's qualities, we were very aggressive when losing the ball, which was very important."
Fernandes pinpointed Portugal's 'individual talent' as the reason for their historic win, their first in a competitive match against Spain since Euro 2004. In particular, he singled out Paris Saint-Germain left-back Nuno Mendes, keeper Diogo Costa and midfielder Ruben Neves.
"We had individual talent on our side, such as Nuno [Mendes] , our left-sided player, who ended up running over everyone and ended up giving us two moments of great joy, with his runs," he added.
"Individual talent is what makes you win the game, like Diogo Costa's save and Rúben Neves' penalty. We don't need to be favourites. That's up to the person who says it, there will always be those who say that some are favourites, others will say that others are.
"That doesn't matter to us. We, the Portuguese, go out there to win, whatever it is, whoever is ahead of us. We want to win every game. Sometimes it's possible, sometimes it's not.
"Sometimes we play better, sometimes we play worse. But we always give everything on the pitch and with the knowledge that we are capable of beating any team, at any time."
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