Aheed Abrar
Lisandro Martinez believes Manchester United showed more fight in second half to beat Real Betis
Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez believes the Red Devils showed more fight and changed the game against Real Betis in the second half.
Marcus Rashford found the back of the net early on in the opening minutes of the match to give us the lead. However, the Verdiblancos found a way back and equalised through Ayoze Perez.
But after the break, the Old Trafford side managed to change the game. In stark contrast to the second half against Liverpool, where they scored six goals past us, it was the Manchester-based club that dominated the proceedings versus Manuel Pelligrini’s team.
Bruno Fernandes was impressive. After setting up Antony to retain the lead, the Portugal international beat Claudio Bravo in between the sticks as well. Subsequently, Wout Weghorst got on the scoresheet as well.
In the end, we beat the La Liga outfit 4-1 in the first leg of the Europa League round of 16 tie on Thursday (9 March) at home.
Speaking after the victory to MUTV (h/t Manchester Evening News), Martinez, who played the full 90 minutes, explained the reason for United’s resurgence after the break.
“We are happy for this game. I think the energy of the team [lacked], they started to play, and in the second half we changed the passion, the energy and we showed our mentality and we created more chances, then we score.”
The former Ajax centre-back signed for the Red Devils in the summer of 2022. After a shaky start to life in Manchester, the Argentina international has been one of our best players.
The 25-year-old has formed a solid partnership with Raphael Varane in our backline. As a result, Erik ten Hag preferred the two in the current campaign.
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Martinez has brought tenacity and aggressiveness. The Old Trafford side have been enamoured by the centre-back’s quality and character. With a good advantage over Betis, hopefully, we will be able to get the job done in a comfortable fashion in the second leg.
