Raphael Varane Scores His First Ever Manchester United Goal As the Red Devils Return to Winning Ways

Raphael Varane Scores His First Ever Manchester United Goal As the Red Devils Return to Winning Ways

Martin Moses
updated at April 12, 2023 at 8:01 PM
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Bruno Fernandes logo
B. Fernandes
Manchester United logoMPortugal logo
Cristiano Ronaldo logo
C. Ronaldo
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ENG Premier League
England
  • Manchester United beat Brentford 3-0 in a dominant performance to return to winning ways in their last home game of the season
  • Raphael Varane scores his first Manchester United goal as Bruno Fernandes scores his 50th goal in a Manchester United shirt
  • Ronaldo maintains his charge for the Golden Boot award with his 18th goal of the campaign from the penalty spot

Raphael Varane scored his first-ever Manchester United goal to help Manchester United beat Brentford 3-0 at Old Trafford on Monday night. Varane, scored the third goal as the Red Devils returned back to winning ways.

Bruno Fernandes put United on their way in the first half after some excellent work by Antony Elanga down the right side. The Portuguese international turned in Elanga’s cross for his 50th goal in a Manchester United shirt.

Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo, Old Trafford, Brenford
Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United scores his side's second goal during the Premier League match between Manchester United and Brentford at Old Trafford. Photo by James Gill - Danehouse.
Source: Getty Images

Brentford continued to threaten United’s goal with Cristian Eriksen kneading some intricate passes. The front two of Ivan Toney and Bryan Mbeumo couldn’t however work David De Gea in goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo had a goal ruled out for offside just before halftime. Juan Mata, who was starting his first Premier League game in over 10 months, picked up the ball from his own half before surging forward to release Ronaldo.

Ronaldo scored with his first touch but after a VAR review, the goal was chalked off. The former Real Madrid man was, however, not to be denied in the second half when Rico Henry brought him down in the box.

Center referee Chris Kavanaugh pointed to the spot and Ronaldo made no mistake in converting his 18th goal of the campaign. Brentford had a penalty claim of their own after Alex Telles was adjudged to have handled the ball. The complaints were, however, waved away.

Matic and Mata's final home game for United

In what was Manchester United’s last home game of the campaign, the Old Trafford faithful had an opportunity to bid goodbye to Nemanja Matic and Juan Mata. The duo started the game and were substituted in the second half with Fred and Phil Jones taking their places.

They are set to leave United at the end of this season. Varane added a third goal after he pounced on an Alex Telles corner to get his first goal after making the switch from Real Madrid.

The scoreline was Ralf Rangnick’s largest win during his tenure as interim manager. Rangnick is set to take up a consultancy role at the end of the season plus the national team duties as Austria manager.

The result leaves United sixth with 58 points.

Ten Hag to decide Ronaldo's future

Earlier, Sports Brief reported that Rangnick will leave the future of Ronaldo in the hands of incoming manager Erik Ten Hag.

Ten Hag is set to take over at Old Trafford amidst growing uncertainty over the future of Ronaldo. Real Madrid has been reported to be interested in bringing the talismanic forward back to Spain.

Ronaldo has enjoyed a stellar individual campaign after returning to England this season. He is Manchester United’s top scorer and has been involved heavily in more than half of their goals.

Authors
Martin Moses photo
Martin Moses
Martin Moses is a sports journalist with over five years of experience in media. He graduated from Multimedia University of Kenya (Bachelor of Journalism, 2017-2021)