- Portuguese fluffed his lines from the spot
- Bumped into referee before stepping up
- Behaviour of United captain questioned
Portugal international Fernandes, who is usually so reliable from 12 yards, hammed a horrendous spot-kick high into the Craven Cottage crowd after being given a glorious opportunity to open the scoring in west London.
Fernandes became distracted during his penalty-taking preparations when referee Chris Kavanagh inadvertently backed into the United midfielder as he organised those lining up on the edge of the box.
Fernandes said afterwards: “I was upset. As a penalty-taker, you have your own routines, your own things that you do. It upset me because the referee didn’t apologise. That is what triggered me in that moment, but that’s not the excuse for missing the penalty. I had a very bad hit on the ball. I put my foot too under the ball and that’s why it ended up going over the bar.”
Fernandes’ apparent petulance has attracted plenty of criticism, with ex-Chelsea star Craig Burley savaging the Portuguese playmaker when he told ESPN: “I want to talk about the captain. What a wingy, whiny, little moaning pain in the butt. What an embarrassment, what an embarrassment to a professional footballer.
“The referee inadvertently nudged him as he was backing off the penalty and he made out the referee has basically run into him. What a big kid. Any player worth his salt would have laughed that off and taken the penalty and yet he whined and moaned and cried, as he does, about something so innocuous. It was embarrassing. A lot of his career at United has been good but there’s been a sideshow as well and that encapsulated it for me.
“I thought it was embarrassing beyond belief. How does that put you off your routine? He made such a song and dance about it that it became the story. I thought it was beyond embarrassing, it was childish, school playground stuff. It beggars belief, it really does.”
United did eventually take the lead against Fulham, courtesy of a Rodrigo Muniz own goal, but ultimately had to settle for a share of the points in a 1-1 draw as Ruben Amorim’s side wait on their first win of the 2025-26 campaign.
