Midfielder Ander Herrera has dedicated Manchester United's Europa League victory over Ajax to the victims of Monday's terrorist attack after 22 people were killed.
Win it for them
All attention on United's imminent journey to the Friends Arena in Stockholm was turned off after Monday's tragedy, with the announcement of 22 deaths and numerous injuries after a bomb was detonated inside the city's MEN Arena after the conclusion of an Ariana Grande concert.
The club headed to Stockholm under a cloud of tragedy but manager José Mourinho rallied his troops with the message to 'do it for the city', and they certainly delivered as Herrera put in a man of the match performance in what was a comfortable victory for the Red Devils.
Paul Pogba got the scoring started with his deflected effort in the first period and Henrikh Mkhitaryan sealed the 2-0 win early into the second period. United celebrated long into the Scandinavian night but Herrera took the initiative to dedicate the win to those victims.
"I’m very happy but I want to dedicate the trophy to the victims," Herrera told manutd.com. "This is just football but what happened the other day was horrible."
"Yesterday [Tuesday] morning we were devastated," the Spaniard admitted. "We were really sad because when you think about life and football, you have no voice."
"It was difficult to train but the manager told us the only thing we could do was to win it for them," he added. "And that’s what we’ve done."
Can talk about a great season
Though the match had more importance than just on the football pitch, it was crucial that United lifted the Europa League to secure Champions League football for the next campaign having failed to make it into the top four of Premier League.
Wednesday's victory secured what is considered the most minor of trebles with the Europa League, EFL Cup and Community Shield, and Herrera stated that it couldn't be considered a "great season" without a victory against Ajax.
"It was the game of the season," he said. "Because we couldn’t talk about a good season if we didn’t win it."
"We can now talk about a great season," Herrera concluded. "Because we have three trophies and are in the Champions League next season."