Sports

Whether in stadium or not, fans are always behind you: Yuvraj to Rashford

New Delhi, June 13 (IANS) Former India cricketer Yuvraj Singh is a self-confessed Manchester United fan and showed that side of himself during an interaction with United and England forward Marcus Rashford.

Yuvraj said in the interaction that he has been following United since the days that Eric Cantona was captaining the club in the 1990’s and spoke about when Rashford scored the winning penalty to seal United’s improbable win over Paris St Germain in the Round of 16 of the Champions League last season.

“I was glued to the television watching the match. I just want to tell Marcus that, about fans not being there in the stadium, fans are always behind you,” said Yuvraj on the interaction that was arranged by Sony Network for their show Pit Stop on its Facebook page. “Whether in the stadium or at home, we always have your back.”

United went into the second leg of the match with 2-0 deficit with PSG dominating the home leg of the match. Romelu Lukaku scored in the second minute of the match but Juan Bernat increased PSG’S aggregate advantage to 3-1 ten minutes later. Lukaku scored again in the 30th minute to reduce the deficit to one goal again for United.

PSG seemed to have done a good job of holding United away but VAR ended up giving the visitors a penalty in injury time for a hand ball off defender Presnel Kimpembe. Rashford took the kick and showed no signs of nerves as he slotted it home in the 94th minute of the match.

“That was a penalty 100 percent,” said Yuvraj. “Winning away from home, that’s what United is. If you look at United’s history, there are a lot of wins in the second half, a lot of wins in pressure situations and that talks volumes of our players.”

Yuvraj asked Rashford about the pressure he may have had to deal with when he was taking that penalty and the latter said that dealing with pressure is ingrained in a United player from the times they are playing underage football.

“I’ve seen right from the time I was a kid that every team that you face want to beat Man United,” said Rashford. “We’ve been dealing with pressure from that age. I remember when I first made my debut, it gets to a stage where you don’t feel the pressure and you just want to enjoy it.

“When you’re happy you always play your best football. It’s nothing technical, it’s just the feeling you get and I’ve always played my best when I’m playing in that situation. The pressure is not from the game, it comes from yourself.”

The Premier League returns after the enforced break due to the coronavurus pandemic on June 17 and United’s first match will be against Tottenham Hotspur.

–IANS

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