Man United vs Aston Villa: Bruno Fernandes' goal secures hard-fought win for Red Devils

Man United vs Aston Villa: Bruno Fernandes' goal secures hard-fought win for Red Devils

Ifeanyi Ufomadu 16:05 - 30.04.2023

Manchester United consolidated their place in the Premier League top-four with a narrow 1-0 victory over Aston Villa at Old Trafford.

Bruno Fernandes scored the only goal of the game in the first half to give Erik ten Hag's Manchester United side a battling 1-0 win over Aston Villa.

var widgetLoaderConfig = widgetLoaderConfig || { CDN_URL: 'https://widgets.sportal365.com', APP_LINK: 'desktop', API_URL: 'https://africa.football.api.sportal365.com/', API_KEY: '2f852b4de2f3a5cf3188e74b33087bb4:2c18422f8e826a7d11aeed52edb2449e', LANG: 'en', REQUEST_INTERVAL: 30, ENABLE_BET_SLIP: false, AUTHOR: false, THEME: "light", TOURNAMENT_ORDER: "pulse_nigeria", LINK_OPTIONS_V2: { 'player' : { 'url': '/football/player/{playerId}' }, 'team' : { 'url': '/football/{teamId}' }, 'tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}' }, 'match': { 'url' : '/football/match/{matchId}', 'sort': { 'criteria': 'alphabetically', 'direction': 'asc' } }, 'configuration': { 'newWindow': false }, 'standings_tournament': { 'url': '/football/competition/{tournamentId}/standings' } } }; if (!document.querySelector('script[src="https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js"]')) { window.setTimeout(function () { let scriptCss = document.createElement('link'); scriptCss.href = 'https://www.pulsesports.ng/css/sport-widgets.css?v=1668785443'; scriptCss.rel = 'stylesheet'; scriptCss.type = 'text/css'; document.body.appendChild(scriptCss); let scriptTag = document.createElement('script'); scriptTag.src = 'https://widgets.sportal365.com/loader.bundle.min.js'; scriptTag.defer = true; scriptTag.onload = function () { window.setTimeout(function () { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }, 200); }; document.head.appendChild(scriptTag); }, 0); } else { new SMPWidgetsLoader(widgetLoaderConfig); }

How it happened

Manchester United looked to take control of proceedings during the early stages, with Marcus Rashford and Casemiro both going close to opening the scoring inside the opening half-hour.

Aston Villa, unbeaten in their last 10 PL matches, searched for a foothold in the game but it was United who finally made their pressure count six minutes before the interval. 

Rashford saw a low effort parried away by Emiliano Martínez and the loose ball fell to Bruno Fernandes who lifted a clever finish into the net to send the home fans wild.

However, despite plenty of possession inside the Villa half, a lack of cutting edge in the final third continued to frustrate Ten Hag's men as Rashford saw another effort saved by Martinez.

The result sees the Red Devils consolidate their place in the top-four with a nine-point cushion over Tottenham and Villa, while Unai Emery's men suffer a first defeat in 11 PL matches to dent their European hopes.

Related content