Martinez says Man Utd 'need to believe more in themselves' ahead of City clash

Lisandro Martinez says that the Manchester United players "need to believe more" in themselves ahead of the derby.

United cruised to a 4-0 win over Sabah in the Champions League on Thursday and our now turning their attention to the clash with Manchester City on Sunday.

For Martinez he said that the clean sheet and the win were the best aspects from the Sabah clash, which he feels will build confidence which has been lacking.

He said: "For me the clean sheet and the win, it is very important to build the confidence for what we can do on the pitch.

"We have an amazing squad, with amazing players but some time we need to believe more in ourselves that we can compete, that we can play good football.

"We can take risks at times and personally I'm happy with the result and the performance, with the efforts of the lads. We are very happy to be in this competition, we missed it a lot."

Martinez was on the scoresheet along with Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes and Benjamin Sesko.

"It’s an amazing feeling, an amazing feeling, scoring in this amazing and beautiful stadium with those people and also my girlfriend being there upstairs, I can’t ask for more, you know?," said Martinez.

"Tonight, honestly, I’m one of the happiest people in the world. We have to enjoy and, tomorrow, we have to think about the derby.

"[It will be] an amazing and beautiful game [against Manchester City]. We want to enjoy [it], we want to play with a big mentality and focus and we want to try to get the three points."

Michael Carrick made four changes from Sunday’s late draw at Everton and United made a bright start, with Cunha forcing an unconvincing stop and Noussair Mazraoui hitting the side-netting.

Sabah were pinned back in what at times felt like a defence against attack exercise, with Sesko just prevented from meeting a Fernandes cross before Mbeumo was denied.

United were slow but patient and the inevitable breakthrough arrived in the 27th minute.

Patrick Dorgu, deployed at left-back in the absence of Luke Shaw, sent over a wonderful first-time cross that Cunha met from close range with a strike into the ground and into the net.

Sesko hooked a volley wide as United’s dominance continued, but Sabah had some quality in their team and so nearly scored a famous equaliser.

Play was spread right to Kaheem Parris after they won the ball in United’s half, with his clipped cross headed into the side-netting at the far post by Mickels.

The Sabah striker could not belief his miss – a 36th-minute let-off that the hosts punished emphatically.

Fernandes patted Youri Tielemans on the chest after the summer signing showed exceptional awareness to cut back for him to score at the end of a free-flowing team move six minutes later.

Another United goal followed in the 45th minute. Mbeumo slipped Sesko through to dart past outrushing goalkeeper Stas Pokatilov and coolly roll into an empty net on the striker’s first start of the season. It follows his weekend goal against Everton.

Mason Mount replaced Tielemans at the break as the result was all but assured, with Cunha and Fernandes denied from distance during a low-key start to the second period.

Tymoteusz Puchacz fired a long-range free-kick narrowly off target as Sabah sought a consolation, only to concede from a United set piece shortly afterwards.

Fernandes sent a quick, looped free-kick to substitute Joshua Zirkzee, whose backheel caused chaos as Martinez stabbed home in the 68th minute.

There were few flashes of excitement from that point as Sabah kept the hosts at bay defensively and pushed for a memorable end to their debut in the league phase of Europe’s top competition.

Mickels fired wide and substitute Orphe Mbina clipped the crossbar in stoppage time, but there was to be no consolation to cherish.