A key first-team Manchester United player for Ruben Amorim has now explained why he was not spotted celebrating Bruno Fernandes’ penalty winner at the corner flag.
Manchester United earned a late spot-kick against Burnley on Saturday afternoon, with Jaidon Anthony pulling down winger Amad Diallo in an injury-time challenge.
Sam Barrott did not point to the spot immediately and VAR intervention called for the Premier League referee to head to the pitchside monitor to review the incident.
The referee overturned his initial decision and awarded United a penalty against Burnley, with Jaidon Anthony also being booked for his tussle with Amad Diallo.
Bruno Fernandes stepped up and smashed a superb penalty strike into the bottom-left corner of the Burnley net, with Martin Dubravka unable to prevent the winner.
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Diogo Dalot, Bruno Fernandes and Bryan Mbeumo celebrate the victory following the Premier League match between Manchester United and Burnley at Old Trafford in 2025 in Manchester, England.
Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images
Matthijs de Ligt breaks his silence on not celebrating with Bruno Fernandes and the Man Utd players at the corner flag
Bruno Fernandes wheeled away in celebration and the Manchester United captain shared a moment of complete euphoria with his fellow teammates at Old Trafford.
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The 30-year-old Red Devils skipper sealed all three Premier League points for United and eased the pressure on Ruben Amorim going into the international break.
Speaking after the 3-2 Premier League result on Saturday, Matthijs de Ligt said that he was not among the United first-team players celebrating alongside Fernandes.
The 26-year-old United defender made it clear that he wanted to preserve his “energy” and maintain his “focus” for the remaining minutes of the contest.
“Yeah, obviously really happy [with Bruno Fernandes’ penalty],” Matthijs de Ligt told MUTV.
“But to be fair, I didn’t went to the corner flag like everybody because first, I was really tired and I wanted to keep my energy and focus for the last four or five minutes.
“So, I celebrated, congratulated Bruno, but then I went immediately back to the position.”
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Matthijs de Ligt speaks out on Man Utd’s Premier League performance against Burnley in the Old Trafford clash
Matthijs de Ligt admitted after the Premier League match on the weekend that the Red Devils could still “improve” after missing their chances against Burnley.
“I think the first half was good from our side – we created a lot of big chances, I think we didn’t concede that much,” he said, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“Overall, a really stable and solid performance, but obviously you keep them in the game with not scoring the 2-0 or even 3-0 – that’s something we could improve.”
De Ligt added: “But also in the second half, you felt like we dropped in energy and retention and then you see out of nowhere they could score goals and make it difficult for us.
“That’s something we definitely have to improve, but I think the fact we came after the first goal of theirs – immediately we scored 2-1 and after 2-2 we still believed to score 3-2 – I think is the biggest plus of today, but we all know that getting away [with it] like today is not every week so we really have to improve on that.”
United are ninth in the Premier League table going into the start of the September international break and will return to action on 14th against Manchester City.