Ralf's take on a 'decisive' win

Rangnick's side took a first-half lead when Bruno Fernandes was expertly found by Anthony Elanga, and the Portuguese midfielder finished clinically past David Raya. Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal ruled out for offside just before the break, but fired home a powerful penalty in the second half after he was fouled by Brentford left-back Rico Henry.

Raphael Varane rounded off the scoring after 72 minutes, firing a volley into the back of the net via a deflection to seal the three points. It was the Frenchman's first goal for the Reds, and United’s final strike at Old Trafford this season.

Following the full-time whistle in M16, our interim manager shared his thoughts on the encounter while speaking to MUTV and Sky Sports. You can read all of his main comments from those interviews below...

AN ENJOYABLE WATCH

“We enjoyed the game. I think you could also see that the players enjoyed their performance. When we were in possession of the ball, that was one of the best performances we have showed in the last six months since I arrived. Defensively, [there was] still a few gaps between the lines, we were not always in shape and in possession, and that’s when they had their moments but in general, I think that was a decisive win. I think we deserved to win because we had more control of the game and more clear chances to score.”

PLAYED WITH CONTROL

“I think the fact we played with Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic gave us some quality in midfield, plus Cristiano and Bruno. Bruno was also showing an improved performance, not only because he scored the goal but also in possession. It was not so easy for them to take the ball away from us. In the first half, in my opinion, we played a few too many back passes and square passes where we invited them to press. In general, as I said, in possession, that was a good performance.”

MATA AND MATIC’S INFLUENCE

“For Juan and Nema, they are both fantastic players with fantastic careers. [They have had] a few very good years here with Manchester United. Maybe it was their last home game we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the next couple of weeks, but if it was their last home game, then it’s also for them a special night to remember.”

ELANGA’S BRIGHT FUTURE

“He’s only just turned 20 and at Christmas, before I arrived, he had already thought about going on loan somewhere else and now he’s almost playing regularly for us. I think he’s got a great mentality, he’s a good lad, he wants to get better in every training session and he will hopefully stay in the club for the next couple of years and then improve. There’s still a lot of space for improvement for him technically, tactically, but he wants to learn and that’s the good thing about him.”

PERFORMING FOR THE FANS

“We have had games like this earlier on. What we lacked was consistency in games like away at Everton and too many just dropped points when we were one or two-nil up. We could have easily had six if not eight points more, but we didn’t and we don’t and this is why, yes, I’m still disappointed and I think it was important to show this type of performance towards ourselves but also towards our fantastic fans.”