Manchester United beat Brentford 3-0 on a rainy Monday night at Old Trafford with Portugal internationals Bruno Fernandes and Cristiano Ronaldo scoring to keep their team in sixth place in the Premier League.
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.
Mata made the counter-attack and Ronaldo broke through the Brentford penalty area from the right, after a clumsy foul by Rico Henry.
He finished unequivocally before Varane made his less-than-familiar entry into the scoreboard, turning home to control a beautiful finish from Telles’ corner.
The result puts United on 58 points from 36 matches, six ahead of West Ham United, who have a game in hand, for sixth place and a spot in the Europa League for the 2022-23 campaign.
Rangnick said the win over Brentford was a vast improvement when compared to their recent form.
“We were in control for most parts,” 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.”
Brentford have 40 points from 35 games and may need one more win to ensure they not dragged into a relegation fight.
