It was a tricky night for Ruben Amorim’s side after getting off to a terrible start as Jaden Philogene put the visitors ahead after four minutes thanks to a mix-up between Patrick Dorgu and Andre Onana.
The home side bounced back and were ahead after 26 minutes thanks to a Sam Morsy own goal and De Ligt netting a second.
Dorgu was then shown a red card for a grim challenge on Omari Hutchinson and Philogene’s second made it 2-2 at half-time.
Harry Maguire was the hero, though, with his 47th minute header proving to be the winner for United.
De Ligt was pleased with the fighting spirit shown by the Red Devils, picking up just their ninth Premier League win of the season in the process.
‘I think it was a hard fought win,’ De Ligt told MUTV. ‘The second half with 10 men, fighting, even scoring, it was a really good achievement.
‘It was a good game from us in the second half. I think in the first half we didn’t even play that bad, we just conceded two silly goals. Obviously, this can always happen in football.
‘In general, I think we made some improvements compared to the last game.’
After three league games without a win, the Red Devils stopped the rot with the victory over the Tractor Boys, climbing to 14th in the table.
‘Really important. This was a really important game for us. We know what situation we are in,’ said the Dutch defender.
‘If at half-time you are down to 10 men and it’s 2-2, obviously it is going to be a really difficult second half, so I think it’s a really important win for us and hopefully we can continue against Fulham.’
Amorim was obviously delighted with the win, but admitted there is still a lot of improvement to be achieved by his side.
Bruno Fernandes was yet again the key player for the Red Devils, providing two assists, and the manager credited his performance from deeper in midfield than we sometimes see him.
‘We have to improve in every aspect. We lack some characteristics in our squad to play in the different way,’ said Amorim. ‘We need to have more possession and I felt that today we were more calm with the ball, especially in the beginning and especially after we suffer the first goal.
‘I think Bruno was really important on that. Sometimes we want Bruno higher in the pitch to be near the goal, but sometimes we need Bruno also building up and I think he was really good on that today because he’s really confident with the ball no matter what the context.
‘We clearly need to create more chances and especially we need to score goals, I think that is a big issue in our team and when we think in the future, we need to address that.’
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