Bruno Fernandes offered up a passionate defence of Andre Onana after his Manchester United team-mate made gifted the opposition a goal following a second error in as many games.
Onana came into the game under the microscope after a struggling performance in defeat to Nottingham Forest which was most notable for allowing a Morgan Gibbs-White shot to go straight past him.
This time, away to Viktoria Plzen, Onana completely miscalculated a pass out from the back to Matthjis de Ligt, allowing the Czech side to nip in and tap into an empty net.
But the wobbles from Onana, who has been one of United’s most important players so far this season, are of no concern to team captain Fernandes.
‘We want to play from the back and everyone knows that, then we have to make the right decision on the pitch,’ Fernandes explained to TNT Sports.
‘Andre [Onana] thought that Matta [De Ligt] could get on the ball but he missed it and they scored a goal.
Andre Onana had to bury his face in his shirt after he made a costly mistake on Thursday night
Players have ‘huge belief’ in the goalkeeper, though, according to captain Bruno Fernandes
‘It is not about Andre making the mistake, we don’t look at individuals here when something happens on the wrong side.
‘We have huge belief in him. He knows he made a mistake because he is a clever guy, he is going to help us many times and we trust his qualities on the ball.
‘Mistakes are part of football. If they don’t happen then goals don’t happen. But we did well to show the resilience to come back and find the victory.’
United have stuttered in the Europa League so far this season and this was a crucial game as they look to avoid a two-legged play-off tie to reach the knockout stages, a fate that awaits those who don’t finish the group phase in the top eight.
And so two goals from second half substitute Rasmus Hojlund ensured a precious victory for United, taking them up, at least temporarily, into the automatic knockout qualification spots, much to the delight of Fernandes.
‘It was a good performance overall,’ he claimed, with his clever free-kick to Hojlund teeing up the winning goal in the 88th minute.
‘I think in the final third we could have kept the ball a bit more but the man-marking from them was difficult to get away from.
‘Sometimes you just have to pass and run to try to find the gaps in behind.
Onana was trying to play out from the back during Thursday night’s clash with Viktoria Plzen
Matej Vydra wheeled away in celebration after opening the scoring on the night
‘In the first half we did it better than in the second half, when we let the game go a little bit in the way that they wanted, a bit more transitional. Then we dealt with that and in the end we got the win.’
United now have just two games remaining of the Europa League group phase, with both games taking place in January.
Amorim’s side welcome Rangers to Old Trafford before concluding on the road in Bucharest, Romania, to take on FCSB on January 30.
