Bruno Fernandes was brutally mocked by some of his Manchester United team-mates after his dominant display in Thursday’s 4-1 win over Real Sociedad in the second leg of their Europa League round of 16 contest.
Fernandes fired United into the quarter-finals by scoring the second hat-trick of his Old Trafford career.
After drawing the first leg 1-1 in Spain and then falling behind in Manchester, United took charge as captain Fernandes scored his 13th, 14th and 15th club goals of the season.
As he was the player of the match and United’s hat-trick hero, Fernandes got to walk away with the ball. Many of his fellow United players decided to personalise the ball by either signing it or writing messages.
Some of those messages – spotted by eagle-eyed fans after Alejandro Garnacho posted a photo of himself and Fernandes posing with the ball to Instagram – were more polite than others.
One message read: ‘You were still s*** the 1st half of the season’, perhaps alluding to the fact he did not score a Premier League goal until November.
Bruno Fernandes scored three goals – including two penalties – for Man United on Thursday
After his hat-trick in a 4-1 win over Real Sociedad, he walked away with a signed match ball
Eagle-eyed fans on X (Twitter) noticed that some of the messages on the ball were a little rude
Another cheeky scribbled comment from a team-mate joked: ‘How much you paid the ref?’
This was seemingly a reference to Fernandes scoring two of his three goals on Thursday night from penalty kicks.
After beating Real Sociedad 5-2 on aggregate, United will now face Lyon in the quarter-finals after the French side wrapped up a 7-1 aggregate victory over Romania’s FCSB on Thursday.
United or Lyon will then meet either Rangers or Athletic Bilbao in the semi-finals.
The final will be played at San Mames Stadium, home of Athletic Bilbao, on May 21.
