Rúben Amorim reluctantly takes centre stage after farewell gift to Sporting fans | Simon Burnton

The incoming Manchester United manager delivered a Champions League rout of Manchester City on an emotional night

After the final whistle Rúben Amorim trudged on to the pitch clutching his gilet, realised the next 10 minutes of his life would be better spent without a gilet and trudged off again to get rid of it. It was the only misstep of an extraordinary final evening at a raucous José Alvalade, during which his side conceded after just four minutes, somehow clung on to a single-goal deficit during an opening 35 minutes in which Manchester City threatened to bring his era to a jarringly humiliating conclusion, and then across a remarkable second half executed a joyful filleting of the English champions.

After this result the first thing Amorim will have to manage in Manchester is expectation, and that work started straight after the game. Asked if he had a message for United’s fans, he did not hesitate: “This means nothing,” he said. “Don’t take anything from this. We were lucky. It was a one-off. It doesn’t mean anything.”

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