Bruno Fernandes urges Manchester United to focus on Europa League after FA Cup exit

United were left with just the Europa League to play for after exiting the FA Cup on penalties

Bruno Fernandes says silverware remains misfiring Manchester United’s focus as attention turns to the Europa League following the FA Cup holders’ disappointing exit to Fulham.

Last May’s Wembley win against Manchester City ended a poor season on a high for Erik ten Hag, whose successor Ruben Amorim oversaw a disappointing fifth-round exit at Old Trafford on Sunday.

United skipper Fernandes took the game to extra time by brilliantly cancelling out Calvin Bassey’s header, with it ending 1-1 after 120 minutes before Fulham won 4-3 on spot-kicks courtesy of two Bernd Leno saves.

Victor Lindelof and Joshua Zirkzee were both denied in a shoot-out loss that leaves the Europa League as the only route to silverware and realistically continental qualification, for the side 14th in the Premier League.

“Of course I helped the team to draw the game and to try to get back into the game to win it but unfortunately it was not enough today,” United captain Fernandes said.

“But we look forward now to the rest of the season, obviously with the main focus now on the next game in a competition where we want to go forward. It’s one of our goals for this season to try and get a trophy.”

Real Sociedad are the opponents as United restart their bid for Europa League glory, with Thursday’s round of 16 first leg in Spain taking on increased significance after their FA Cup exit.

“We know that we had many injuries in this period and we don’t have as many players (as we would like),” Fernandes told MUTV.

“We’ve been playing almost always with the same players for long spells and it’s been difficult, so we just now need to recover and focus ourselves to do the best we can, to get the best fresh legs to the next game.

“It’s going to be a tough one. A Spanish team that plays brilliant football.

“Very, very good players up front, very (good) quality coming out from the back, so we need to be fresh to run again, because they will make us run and then when we have the ball we have to make them run too.”

As United look to reset and refocus on European matters, Fulham have two league games before an exciting FA Cup quarter-final date at home to Crystal Palace following the international break.

It is 50 years since the club’s one and only appearance in the final and penalty hero Leno was delighted by Sunday’s famous Old Trafford triumph.

“It feels amazing – the way we played, also with the penalty shoot-out,” the Fulham goalkeeper told FFC TV. “I think the fans were amazing. Brilliant day for all of us.

“Sometimes penalties is a bit of casino and today we won the roulette.”

Standout midfielder Sander Berge said of the draw at home to Palace: “We look forward to that game.

“Big tie and getting to Wembley is a huge carrot. We can’t wait for that challenge.

“We have a little work to be done there after last game against them (when we lost 2-0 at home) and we really look forward to that.

“And Wembley, we talked about it before the game today and now we’re one step closer. Now all focus on the league and then we look forward to it.”