Bruno Fernandes feels Manchester United have 'many things to improve' after Bayern defeat in Champions League

Bruno Fernandes has admitted his side’s 4-3 defeat by Bayern Munich on Wednesday night was "difficult to take" before claiming that Manchester United cannot blame injuries to key players as an excuse for the defeat.

United fell to their third consecutive defeat in all competitions during their UEFA Champions League opener at the Allianz Stadium, despite rallying in the second half to score three times.

“It’s really difficult to take this one,” the United captain said to TNT Sports after the final whistle.

“We knew it was going to be tough to play against Bayern.

“We knew that they have such a great team. Obviously, when you give so much space to them and time to think, they’re going to hurt you.”

Andre Onana allowed Bayern to open the scoring after fumbling a shot from Leroy Sane, which trickled its way underneath him and into the goal, before Serge Gnabry doubled the hosts' lead just four minutes later.

Rasmus Hojlund pulled one back for the away side after half-time, his first goal for the club, before Bayern were awarded a penalty, which Harry Kane made no mistake in converting.

There was a frantic end to the game with Casemiro scoring twice either side of a Mathys Tel strike, which sealed the victory for Bayern Munich.

Fernandes added: “We came back at 3-2 and conceded another. Overall we stayed in the game, I think we could have hurt them a little bit more and been a little bit more patient on the ball.

“But I think there are many good things to take from this game. But it wasn’t enough to win.”

Speaking on his side’s chances, the Portugal international admitted the Red Devils were not ruthless enough when they got into promising positions.

“We wanted to be on the ball,” the 29-year-old said, speaking on United’s tactics for the game.

“We knew that Bayern were going to press high in the first few minutes because when they play at home it is always like this. We tried to keep on the ball and find the spaces where we could hurt them.

“We had a big chance in the beginning where we could have gone 1-0 up. But we didn’t score and after Bayern had their chance they scored, and obviously it is always difficult coming from behind against Bayern because we know how tough they are and how strong they are.

“I think overall we did good things but we have many things to improve still.”

While Ten Hag’s side have underperformed so far this season, losing three of their opening five Premier League matches, they have also been unfortunate with injuries.

All of Mason Mount, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Sofyan Amrabat and Raphael Varane were unavailable for Wednesday’s match with injury.

But Fernandes hit back at claims that said United may be struggling in their absence, saying: “We don’t have to think about injured players, we have enough players to give a response on the pitch.

“Obviously we want to have everyone fit and as many players as possible. We know we have some important players injured but that’s not an excuse to not win games.”

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