Portuguse midfielder Bruno Fernandes played the full 90 minutes in his side's 5-0 win over Armenia.placeholder image
Portuguse midfielder Bruno Fernandes played the full 90 minutes in his side's 5-0 win over Armenia. | AFP via Getty Images
Portugal kicked off their qualification campaign with a 5-0 win over Armenia
Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes played the full 90 minutes for Portugal in Saturday night’s resounding 5-0 victory away at Armenia but it’s fair to say that not everyone in the local media was impressed by the 30-year-old’s performance.
A minute's silence was observed before kick-off at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in tribute to Liverpool's Portugal forward Jota and his brother Andre Silva after they were killed in a car crash in July.
Portugal opened the scoring early on through former Chelsea forward Joao Felix after 10 minutes before doubling their lead through Cristiano Ronaldo by scoring in the 21st minute - the same number Jota wore for his country.
Ex-Manchester City full-back Joao Cancelo added a third before half-time before Ronaldo claimed a brace in the second half to take his international goal tally to 140. Felix rounded off the big win with his second goal just after the hour mark in an impressive night for the two Al-Nassr strikers, who are already forming an effective partnership for club and country this season.
How did Bruno Fernandes perform?
Bruno Fernandes’ performance divided opinion with the Portuguese media. Portugoal was critical of the Manchester United’s skipper’s first half performance claiming that he allowed the game to pass him by at times before exploding into life with a much more lively second half display.
The outlet, which gave the player a 7/10 rating, wrote: “Match passed him by in the first half mostly because of Neves and Vitinha’s methodical regulation of play around him. Awakened some in the second half, hitting the bar after good work from Cristiano then misplaced a shot wide left of Avagyan’s goal. Added four key passes and took better care of the ball than normal in a dominant team performance.”
It meant that Fernandes had the joint second lowest rating of any outfield player, with only Manchester City’s Ruben Dias being given a lower rating. Dias was given a 6.5 although it was perhaps a harsh rating given their comments which stated he had little to do while adding he was the best tackler on the night.
Goal.com, however, were not impressed with either Dias or Fernandes contribution. The outlet have both players a 6/10 rating. When discussing Fernandes, they wrote: “Not quite a game-changing display from the Manchester United captain, but it didn't need to be. Tried to get himself into the box to cause a threat for the Armenian defence and was inches away from a tap-in on a couple of occasions.”
Meanwhile, when describing Dias, they added: “Similarly to his goalkeeper, Dias was solid at the back without needing to make many game-changing contributions.”
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