Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes said the build-up to Sunday\u2019s match at Anfield will be a difficult and emotional occasion as Liverpool continue to honour the late Diogo Jota. Fernandes made his remarks to Sky Sports and focused on remembrance rather than rivalry.<\/p>\n
Discussing the absence of his national teammate, Fernandes said, “No, obviously, it\u2019s difficult and sad not to have your national teammate there,” and recalled their frequent encounters. “Played many times against him, not only with the Liverpool shirt but also with the Wolves shirt.”<\/p>\n
Fernandes reflected on Jota\u2019s personality and the reaction he expected from the crowd. “It will be difficult because I know how much the fans love the way Diogo was, as everyone loved because he was a quiet but funny character inside the dressing room. Obviously, it will be a difficult moment, but I want to remember the good things and the good moments he had there.”<\/p>\n
Liverpool have retired Jota\u2019s No. 20 shirt and are planning a permanent tribute outside Anfield inspired by the memorials laid by fans in July. Fernandes, Diogo Dalot and United head coach Ruben Amorm were among those who paid tribute to Jota at the time.<\/p>\n
The forward enjoyed an unbeaten record against United across 11 meetings, recording seven wins and four draws. In one notable encounter, on his first trip to Old Trafford as a Liverpool player in May 2021, Jota cancelled out Fernandes\u2019s opening goal and the visitors went on to win 4\u20132.<\/p>\n
Stat lines published alongside the coverage show Bruno Fernandes with 18 goals and 16 assists, while Diogo Jota is listed with 16 goals and 12 assists. Fernandes underlined that there will be no reunion in person but that Jota\u2019s legacy will be present at the fixture. “Obviously, he is not with us in presence, but he will be there in some way.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bruno Fernandes says Sunday\u2019s Anfield fixture will be emotional as Liverpool honour Diogo Jota also.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3896,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,179,969],"tags":[342,916,239],"class_list":["post-3897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-diogo-dalot","tag-diogo-jota"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}