Harry Maguire told Marcus Rashford he had taken his toughest opportunity after the Manchester United striker scored the only goal of the game against Real Betis.
United won 1-0 in Sevilla to complete a 5-1 aggregate success and book a place in the Europa League quarter-finals, with Rashford scoring his 27th goal of the season.
His blistering 25-yard strike came minutes after he had missed two golden chances on the stroke of half-time, but he showed his confidence was unaffected and the 56th-minute goal killed any threat of a Betis comeback.
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“I just said to him in the dressing room, he scored the hardest. I don’t know if it bubbled or something, it’s not like he’s going to miss that chance,” Maguire told MUTV.
“He’s on fire for us and scores big goals at important times and I think it’s an important goal in the game. We talked about how important the first goal was. After the first five minutes or the second half, the last 40 minutes of the match. the game we really control the game and then we should have seen the task of being a little more clinical.”
United had to ride out an early storm from the hosts, who started the game roared on by a 54,000-strong crowd, and they had opportunities to strike first in the opening quarter, but Maguire was satisfied with a professional performance.
“I think it was a good performance. I think we talked about how important the first goal was, when we get the first goal then we control the game thoroughly,” he said.
“We really should have gone on and won the game 2-0 or 3-0 at the end. And we also talked about the first 20 minutes and how crucial they were going to be. We knew they were going to come out and throw absolutely everything at us for 20 minutes and play with a ridiculous intensity and one that we had to match and I felt we matched it at times.
“Although we probably give them a bit, probably one or two more chances than we would have liked and David made some good saves, but they are a good team. They are fifth in La Liga and challenging for the Champions League places.”
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