Rashford missed a sure goal in United's UEFA Cup tie, squandering a great chance to get back into the game when he received a one-two from Bruno Fernandes at 1-1 and pushed the ball wide of the goalkeeper. As a result, Rashford was verbally abused by fans, including a math teacher, after the game.
It was argued that Fernandez was offside before the pass, so even if Rashford had scored it would have been useless and would have been blown away. But as a striker, the Manchester United demon star should have at least headed the ball in and then seen what would have eventually happened. It's an understandable outcome to be criticized for failing to even grasp the ball, but of course, racial insults are certainly wrongdoing.
It's not the first time Rashford has been racially abused either, but after United's UEFA Cup final defeat, Rashford revealed that he had been subjected to an unprecedented amount of abuse, receiving at least 70 abusive messages on social media, the most outrageous being that one of the abusers was actually a math teacher.
Rashford says after United defeat: I've received at least 70 racist insults on my social accounts so far. For those of you who have made me feel worse than I ever have, good luck. I'm even angrier that one of the people who left a bunch of monkey emoticons on my inbox is a math teacher who teaches kids! He knew he could make as many racist comments as he wanted without consequence.
In a post-match interview, Rashford argued that it didn't make any sense for United to be ranked second in the Premier League and to be runners-up in the UEFA Cup. Now, the Red Devils are being mocked for being the double runner-up kings. At the UEFA Cup presentation ceremony, Rashford embodied his displeasure by removing the silver medal from his neck as soon as he stepped off the podium.
We finished second in the league, that second means nothing. Rashford said it didn't mean anything when City won the league and we came second, and it didn't mean anything when Villarreal won the UEFA Cup and we came second. I don't want to hear the argument that 'they came very close to winning the title', runners-up mean nothing. There's a winner and a loser in the competition and today we lost. We have to find out why and make sure we don't lose again.
After the defeat, Rashford insisted United will not give up on their drive to move forward. The feeling inside is hard to explain because we came here to win games. We've worked hard all season and this is our chance to win trophies but it's not happening now, for whatever reason. We have to get over the disappointment and after that we need to summarize the game and see what went wrong and where we can improve. All I can say is that the team won't give up, there is no giving up with this team. The head coach won't give up and he won't let us give up. Next season will come with a strong will and we're going to compete for the biggest championships.
