Bruno Fernandes still focused on trophy pursuit after Man Utd’s FA Cup exit

Bruno Fernandes says silverware remains misfiring Manchester United’s focus as attention turns to the Europa League following the FA Cup holders’ disappointing exit to Fulham.

Last May’s Wembley win against Manchester City ended a poor season on a high for Erik ten Hag, whose successor Ruben Amorim oversaw a disappointing fifth-round exit at Old Trafford on Sunday.

United skipper Fernandes took the game to extra time by brilliantly cancelling out Calvin Bassey’s header, with it ending 1-1 after 120 minutes before Fulham won 4-3 on spot-kicks courtesy of two Bernd Leno saves.

Victor Lindelof and Joshua Zirkzee were both denied in a shoot-out loss that leaves the Europa League as the only route to silverware and realistically continental qualification, for the side 14th in the Premier League.

“Of course I helped the team to draw the game and to try to get back into the game to win it but unfortunately it was not enough today,” United captain Fernandes said.

“But we look forward now to the rest of the season, obviously with the main focus now on the next game in a competition where we want to go forward. It’s one of our goals for this season to try and get a trophy.”

Real Sociedad are the opponents as United restart their bid for Europa League glory, with Thursday’s round of 16 first leg in Spain taking on increased significance after their FA Cup exit.

“We know that we had many injuries in this period and we don’t have as many players (as we would like),” Fernandes told MUTV.

“We’ve been playing almost always with the same players for long spells and it’s been difficult, so we just now need to recover and focus ourselves to do the best we can, to get the best fresh legs to the next game.

“It’s going to be a tough one. A