Man Utd 1-0 Middlesbrough CRISTIANO RONALDO just cannot keep out of the spotlight. A player born to hog the stage and the headlines. As brave as a lion, he embodies the never-say-die spirit running through Manchester United right now.
MiddlesbroughÂ’s bench and players called him a cheat last night after he won and converted the decisive penalty in this FA Cup quarter-final replay. Another, James Morrison, kicked him on to the cinder track and received a red card.
Afterwards, Ronaldo said: “Maybe someone does not like me because I am too good.” Every team he comes up against does not like him because, simply, he is too good. He also winds up players with his skill and his tricks.
To the extent last night that in injury-time Boro substitute Morrison lost it and slid in with an outrageous challenge that sent Ronaldo tumbling off the pitch. He was rightly given a straight red card for the challenge.
Wayne Rooney stormed in to tell Morrison exactly what he thought of him. The fact is that Ronaldo was bearing down on goal in the 75th minute and ready to drill home a winning shot. Jonathan Woodgate caught his back leg and, at the speed Ronaldo was going, he could not help but go down. To think it was Ronaldo too who had earned this replay with a penalty at the Riverside nine days earlier.
Last night, Ronaldo hit a powerful right-foot strike into the top right-hand corner. It was his 18th goal in what is proving to be an incredible season. So another win notched up for United and another step towards a second historical Treble. After that feat was first achieved back in 1999, boss Alex Ferguson said it would never be repeated.
Ferguson can now take a breather before the final push and just hope all his players return from international duty unscathed. For once, though, the United boss may welcome the break. By the time battle resumes he will have both Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Louis Saha back fit and fresh.
Paul Scholes has also served his three-match ban for a sending off against Liverpool. There has been no damage done in his absence and, as one of the more senior members of the squad, the rest may have done him good. The players who have taken the absenteesÂ’ places have filled in admirably such is the confidence throughout the squad.
Nobody right now embodies that confidence more than Ronaldo — a young man who simply will not be stopped.