Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes concedes the season has “not been great,” but hopes the dramatic win against Liverpool on Sunday will be a springboard for Champions League qualification.
Amad Diallo scored deep into extra time to seal an extraordinary 4-3 victory against their fiercest rivals at Old Trafford and line up an FA Cup semi-final against Coventry City next month.
“The game got a little bit spicy,” said the midfielder. “A little more special because it’s an FA Cup game as if you lose, you’re out.
“We know the rivalry between the fans and we know how United fans wanted us to win the game to give us something to celebrate because it’s not been great for us. We’ve talked about turnarounds but have never done the next step.
“But I think we have to understand the FA Cup is one thing and the Premier League is another one.
“In the league now, we have 10 matches to go and we don’t depend on ourselves but as we saw, Tottenham lost at Fulham and Aston Villa lost points to West Ham.
“But our main goal is not to lose points to Brentford away [on 30 March] We need to put our effort into winning that game.”
United, who were runners-up in last season’s competition, will be heavy favorites against play-off chasing second tier side Coventry City at Wembley.
“Obviously we’re playing a Championship team and not a Premier League team, but Wolves went out against them,” Fernandes added. “We don’t want to compare ourselves with Wolves but we have to respect every team that comes here because I remember two seasons ago we went out against Middlesbrough at home.
“We have to give them the respect they deserve and give our best performance, as we did against Liverpool, and with the same mentality.”