Erik ten Hag has praised Marcus Rashford’s belief and focus as he struck his 30th goal of the season for club and country to surpass Cristiano Ronaldo’s European goalscoring tally for Manchester United.
Rashford’s long-range stunner sealed a 1-0 win for United at Real Betis as Ten Hag’s side progressed to the Europa League quarter-finals with a 5-1 aggregate victory.
The 25-year-old stepped up after Ronaldo’s contract was mutually terminated during the World Cup, scoring 19 goals in 24 games for his club post-Qatar, and has now overtaken his former team-mate to become United’s sixth-highest scorer in European football (25)
Ten Hag was pleased to see Rashford brush off his mistake after missing a glorious chance just moments before his swerving strike sealed the win for United on Thursday night in Spain as he backed his top scorer to keep finding the back of the net.
“The team was creating some chances,” Ten Hag said. “Rashy had some chances before and he missed some but he kept his belief, he kept trying, and got his reward.
“All good strikers know that not every chance you will get a goal but at this level, you don’t create five or six chances in a game so one of the two has to be in.
