Stats confirm Bruno's huge influence
Bruno Fernandes continues to drive Manchester United on, with his two-goal show at Athletic Club the latest dazzling contribution by the captain.
Our Portuguese magnifico is renowned as a brilliant penalty-taker and, once again, showed nerves of steel to calmly beat keeper Julen Agirrezabala from the spot, once all the fuss subsided after the lengthy VAR review and red card for Dani Vivian.
Soon after, he latched on to Manuel Ugarte's clever flick and buried an unerring finish to make it 3-0 at San Mames, which is how the scoreline remained until the final whistle.
Bruno converts penalty as Vivian sent off
The match turned in a moment, as Dani Vivian was sent off and Bruno Fernandes doubled our lead from the spot…
Let's start by looking at just how good Fernandes has been in the Europa League, in terms of the overall context.
Since the start of the competition in its present guise, in 2009/10, our skipper now sits joint-third in terms of goalscoring. Former Arsenal striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leads the way on 34, four clear of former United hitman Radamel Falcao.
The Colombian grabbed his goals for Porto and Atletico Madrid, though, rather than the Reds.
Fernandes is now level with another Old Trafford old boy in the shape of Romelu Lukaka.
EUROPA LEAGUE GOALS
34: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund, Arsenal, Barcelona, Marseille)
30: Radamel Falcao (Porto, Atletico Madrid)
27: BRUNO FERNANDES (Sporting, United), Romelu Lukaku (Anderlecht, Everton, Inter, Roma)
26: Aritz Aduriz (Athletic Club), Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon, Arsenal)
When including the old UEFA Cup, another ex-Red, Henrik Larsson, is the leading marksman with 40 goals to his name.
Bruno was top scorer in the 2019/20 Europa League campaign, when we lost to Sevilla at the semi-final stage, despite his early penalty. Nobody scored more than Marcus Rashford's six goals in the 2022/23 edition of the competition.
In 2024/25, our no.8 is now joint-top in the standings, alongside Ayoub El Kaabi and Kasper Hogh.
TOP SCORERS IN THIS SEASON'S EUROPA LEAGUE
7: Ayoub El Kaabi (Olympiacos)
7: BRUNO FERNANDES (United)
7: Kasper Hogh (Bodo/Glimt)
Fernandes scores the Reds’ third
See how Bruno Fernandes moved on to seven Europa League goals for the season, just before half-time…
It is important not to underplay just how effective the skipper has been of late, with Opta highlighting this with a simple post on social media.
Analysing all Premier League players, the statisticians pointed out that only Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has more goal contributions this season than our brilliant midfielder.
34 - Only Mohamed Salah (56) has scored or assisted more goals for Premier League clubs in all competitions this season than Bruno Fernandes (34 - 18 goals, 16 assists). Talisman. pic.twitter.com/ombC7r1uEE
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) May 1, 2025
Finally, Bruno has now moved on to 98 strike for the club, as he closes on the century landmark, and has equalled Sir Bobby Charlton's European goals record (22).
Let's hope he can hit it this season as the final month of the campaign continues!
UNITED ALL-TIME GOALSCORERS
21. Joe Cassidy (174/100)
22. George Wall (319/100)
23. Bryan Robson (461/99)
24. BRUNO FERNANDES (285/98)
25. Lou Macari (401/97)