Juan Mata And Nemanja Matic Wave Goodbye To Manchester United Fans After Final Home Game

Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic played their final home game for Manchester United on Monday before waving goodbye to fans at Old Trafford.

Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic played their final home game for Manchester United on Monday.

Both players will be out of contract at the end of June when they will leave the club on free transfers.

Mata, 34, and Matic, 33, started Monday's game at Old Trafford where United beat Brentford 3-0 in the Premier League.

Bruno Fernandes, Cristiano Ronaldo and Raphael Varane scored to send the majority of the 73,482 fans at the stadium home happy.

Some United supporters left in the 73rd minute as part of a protest against the club's owners.

But the vast majority of fans stayed to see the players perform their customary end-of-season lap of honor after the final whistle.

Mata, Matic and Co waved to the stands as they walked around the pitch after the game.

Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic say farewell to the Manchester United fans at Old Trafford ❤️ pic.twitter.com/WS0RaJARoz

— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) May 2, 2022

United players do a lap of honour and say their goodbyes. Most of the players here will NOT be here next season!

Mata, Cavani, Jones, and Matic all waved, blew kisses and patted the badge. They won’t play here for us again

Ronaldo did the same but nobody knows what his fate is pic.twitter.com/L4B1qVGm3W

— Maynard Manyowa (@iAmKudaMaynard) May 2, 2022

This was likely Edinson Cavani's final game at Old Trafford too. He is also set to be out of contract in June, although he has not yet officially confirmed that he is leaving.

Interim boss Ralf Rangnick will continue to be employed by United beyond the end of the season. He is set to divide his time between a consultancy role at the club and managing the Austrian national team.  

But this was his final home match as United's manager and he declared himself pleased with his team's performance.

Speaking to Sky Sports, Rangnick said: "In possession that was one of our best performances this year. It was the type of performance we wanted to show to our supporters.

"We played with Juan Mata and Nemanja Matic and that gave us some quality in midfield. It was not too easy for Brentford to take the ball away from us.

"In the first half we played too many square and back passes but in general it was a good performance."

𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐂𝐇𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐊𝐄 𝐕𝐈𝐂𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘

The Red Devils win 3-0 against Brentford to win their first Premier League game in four. 💪 pic.twitter.com/XnW4QhsVEf

— Football Daily (@footballdaily) May 2, 2022

Juan Mata applauds Manchester United fans after his final Old Trafford appearance for the club :: IMAGO/PA Images/Martin Rickett

But while Rangnick was pleased with Monday's performance, he admitted that the season as a whole had been a disappointment.

He added: "In the end I'm not happy with the results, especially in the last four or five weeks. Until the West Ham game we were still in the race in three competitions.

"We had good moments until that West Ham game. We conceded fewer goals but in the last few weeks performances have not been as good as they should have been. In general we have lacked consistency."

United have two matches left his season. They travel to Brighton on Saturday, before visiting Crystal Palace on the final day of the season.