Harry Maguire and Manchester United ‘devastated’ by Europa League loss
Harry Maguire and Bruno Fernandes were left ruing what could have been after their Europa League dreams came to a crashing end in Manchester United’s latest semi-final loss.
United became the first ever top-flight English side to lose semi-finals in three different competitions within the same season on Sunday, when they squandered an early lead in Cologne as Sevilla secured a late 2-1 comeback win and shot at glory.
“It’s difficult (to take),” United skipper Maguire said. “The boys are devastated in there.
“We created numerous amounts of chances. We’ve got to win the game. The best team lost and they punished us for missing the chances. We’ve been ruthless at times this year, but today we weren’t.
“It means a lot to us. The boys are devastated. We’ve got a good group of lads. We know what it means to play for this club: losing isn’t acceptable.
“Getting to semi-finals isn’t acceptable. We’ve got to now really concentrate on taking it further, taking another step.”
Maguire’s sentiments were echoed by Fernandes, whose ninth-minute spot-kick had got United off to a dream start.
“It was more than an impressive performance, it was a great game,” Fernandes told BT Sport. “We created a lot of chances, but in football it’s not enough.
“When you create chances you need to finish, you need to score and today we missed a lot in front of goal.
“Now it’s time to rest, to refresh the legs and think of next season.”
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