ENGLAND: Fernandes the star as United beat Newcastle [video]

Newcastle United 1-4 Manchester United

Bruno Fernandes recovered from missing a penalty to score the vital goal as Manchester United came from behind to beat Newcastle United 4-1 at St James Park in the Premier League.

The Portugal midfielder failed to score from the spot with the match level at 1-1 early in the second half, but Fernandes made up for his miss with a superb goal five minutes from time and later added an assist for Marcus Rashford as United secured an emphatic result.

The Red Devils came into the match having suffered an embarrassing 6-1 home defeat to Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford in their previous game. Things appeared to be going from bad to worse against Newcastle when Luke Shaw put through his own net after just two minutes to see United go behind, but captain Harry Maguire equalised from a corner to send the teams into the break level at 1-1.

Bruno Fernandes took centre stage on 58 minutes when the visitors were awarded a penalty for a foul on Marcus Rashford, but the Seleção man was uncharacteristically wasteful from twelve yards and Karl Darlow made the save. The miss was Fernandes’ first from a penalty for United having scored ten consecutive times from the spot since joining the club in January.

United introduced the likes of Paul Pogba and Donny van de Beek in search of a winning goal and the decisive moment came in the 86th minute. Fernandes and Van de Beek worked the ball well on the left side in United’s half, before Juan Mata found Rashford, who found the overlapping run and fed Fernandes for the former Sporting man to pick out the top corner and complete a brilliant team move.

Full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka smashed in a third in the final minute of normal time and Rashford completed the scoring after getting on the end of a Fernandes throughball. The victory was the perfect return to winning ways for United ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.

By Sean Gillen

@SeanGillen9