Ruben Amorim said he was moved by the "special" welcome he received at Old Trafford after his first home game in charge of Manchester United resulted in a 3-2 victory over Bodo/Glimt.
Having kicked off his reign with Sunday’s 1-1 Premier League draw at promoted Ipswich Town, the 39-year-old Portuguese led the side out on home soil for the first time in Thursday’s Europa League group win over the Norwegians.
United got off to a blistering start as Alejandro Garnacho capitalised on goalkeeper Nikita Haikin’s early error, only for Bodo to take a shock lead through Hakon Evjen and Philip Zinckernagel goals.
Rasmus Hojlund equalised with a fine volley just before the break and scored another shortly after half time to secure a 3-2 triumph and Amorim’s first win on his first Old Trafford outing.
“It was special because half of the stadium doesn’t know me,” the United head coach said. “You can say I came from Portugal, and half of the stadium doesn’t know me.
“I have done nothing for this club yet, but the way they support me in the beginning I felt that I’m not alone.
“I’m like one of them now, and it was really special. I hope not to disappoint my supporters.
“I think we improve different things since the last game. I know it’s a different competition, different team, but we improve with the ball.
“We control more the tempo with the ball, we push the team a little bit more higher, we create more chances.
“We should kill the game before the end of the game. You suffer two transitions. I think we need to improve on that because it was like runs, it was like physical thing, one against one.
“You have to improve on that, but I like some things that the team did today.”
Denmark international Hojlund was omitted from the starting line up for the draw at Ipswich but restored for the visit of Bodo.
The 21-year-old striker has not shone consistently since joining from Atalanta in 2023 and doubled his tally for the season with a pair of impressive finishes against Bodo.
“I think he improved the connection,” Amorim said of Hojlund. “I think he has to improve more because sometimes he gives too many touches when he holds the ball.
“But it’s very important for us because when we are in the low block he is the guy to hold the ball. It connects for transitions. He did that very well, he has that characteristics.
“He was aggressive in the goals, he was aggressive in the box and he’s a quality player.
“I think he scores the most difficult goals, so he has a lot to improve, as is the same for every player, but he did a great job today.”
Spurs boss won't ditch entertaining football
Ange Postecoglou is happy for Tottenham to remain the great entertainers even though he expressed his disappointment after they dropped points at home to Roma.
Spurs looked set to back up Saturday’s 4-0 thrashing of Manchester City with a hard-fought Europa League victory after Son Heung-min and Brennan Johnson struck in the first half to cancel out Evan N’Dicka’s leveller.
Tottenham never truly gained control against Claudio Ranieri’s Roma, but had the chances to kill the match in the second half after they hit the woodwork on three occasions and squandered a succession of chances.
It eventually came back to cost them as moments after Fraser Forster pulled off an outstanding save to deny Gianluca Mancini, Mats Hummels equalised in stoppage time.
The 2-2 draw has seen Spurs climb to ninth in the league phase of the Europa League, which means they would currently miss out on automatic qualification through to the last-16 stage, but Postecoglou will not shut up shop during their final three group ties.
“No,” Postecoglou smiled when asked if he would ditch artistic merit for results to clinch a top-eight finish.
“Why can’t it just be entertaining? Isn’t it why we all come? Would you really prefer us to sketch out a couple of 0-0 draws and a 1-0 win and we get through? I don’t know.
“I would much rather we’re exciting to watch and maybe it is edge-of-the-seat-stuff and sometimes we don’t get the reward, like we could have tonight, but no, if you want those kind of games, there are plenty in world football you can watch every weekend.
“I’d like to think when you tune into us you’ll be entertained.
“There’s three games to go and we’re in a pretty decent position. You try to win every game you can and see where that takes you.
“I think it’ll probably be clearer after the next round but it’s all pretty tight from what I understand. That’s what you expect.”
Spurs head to Rangers in a fortnight with the Scottish Premiership club one place higher in the league table in eighth after a 4-1 win at Nice.
Clement hails Rangers' win over Nice
Philippe Clement claimed Rangers’ stunning win over Nice in France was their best performance of the season.
Amid domestic struggles which have piled pressure on his shoulders, the Belgian boss watched his team again come good on the continent.
The home side had an early penalty award overturned and the visitors took advantage with goals from winger Vaclav Cerny, midfielder Mohamed Diomande and striker Hamza Igamane before the break.
The 22-year-old Moroccan grabbed his second in the 54th minute and the Govan side could and should have added more before and after Badredine Bouanani reduced the deficit in the 83rd minute.
Rangers moved into eighth place in the table with 10 points from five fixtures and it was a real boost to chances of a top-eight finish, although they have Tottenham, Manchester United and Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise still to come.
Clement told broadcaster TNT: “I think if we look at the opponent, yes, because of their strength, I think in Malmo [2-0] against FCSB [4-0], we had also really, really big performances.
“But knowing the level of Nice, this is probably the best performance this season.
“But the season is still young in a way. We talked a lot about that, about young squad, a lot of new players in.
“If you see how many new players were on the pitch today, only two months, three months, some already four months. But it’s still a short time at the club.
“So it starts to gell together better and better, and they become stronger and stronger, and that’s what we need to confirm the next weeks and next months.”
