Bruno Fernandes criticized Real Sociedad for wasting time during their match against Manchester United and claimed that the referee, Georgi Kabakov, did not do enough to control the delaying tactics used by Real Sociedad.
Despite United's victory at the Anoeta Stadium by a score of 1-0, they were unable to move ahead of the La Liga team and finish in first place in their Europa League group.
Real Sociedad will now advance directly to the last-16 stage in March, while Manchester United will have to play a play-off match in February against a third-place finisher from the Champions League, which includes Barcelona and Juventus. Real Sociedad will receive a greater reward for finishing in first place this season.
United needed to win by a margin of two goals to finish in first place, and they appeared to be on the right track when Alejandro Garnacho scored his first goal for the club after 17 minutes.
After that, however, Erik ten Hag's team had trouble creating scoring opportunities, and La Real began to slow the pace of the game during the second half.
These strategies enraged Fernandes, and he believed that the referee was too slow to catch on to what was going on. He also believed that the result was favorable to the home team, and he believed that there should have been more than five minutes added on.
"The frustration was that their team stopped the game so many times, they waste time, and the referee gave them the chance to do that when he knew it was enough for them," Fernandes said to MUTV. "The frustration was that their team stopped the game so many times."
"The referee ought to put a stop to that before it happens, and they are wasting far too much time for only five additional minutes. However, the fact that we are down by two goals does not explain why we did not prevail. Since we were victorious, we need to maintain the high level of positive energy we currently possess.