De Ligt: The win was important, and this is a festive secret

Manchester United team Matthijs de Ligt's claim appeared in press statements, after defeating Southampton 3-0 in the fourth round of the Premier League.

De Ligt, who scored the goal, said: The first: “The win was very important. I think if you get three points from three matches that is not enough so there was some pressure but I think we played very well today. I must praise Andre Onana who saved a really important penalty kick. He changed the course of the game.” The game was for us.”

On scoring from set pieces: “We were working on some set pieces. This one wasn’t completely out of the book but it was from a good place.”

On the secret of his celebration: “It’s my wife’s birthday so this is for her!”

He continued: “Sometimes things don't go the way you want but you have to look at the positive side. I was happy because I played for half an hour, it's been a long time since I played a match. This is my third match in a week. For me it's important to get Rhythm and I can show more of what I can do.”

On his experience with Manchester United so far: “I am very enjoying it. We have a great group of great players. There are a lot of young players who have to develop and want to develop. We hope we can achieve more results like this and improve as a team.”

He concluded: “I’m fine, I just had a little cramp in the last four minutes. It's the first time in about five months that I've played three games in a row. I wanted to play until the end.”