Cristiano Ronaldo will rightly be the centre of attention following his stupendous strike to send Manchester United into the semi- finals of the Champions League. But take a bow Sir Alex Ferguson, who proved that, even at 67, his man-management skills are still razor sharp. Whether it is rival managers or his own players, he cajoles, he riles and he gets a response.
Ferguson's rare public criticism of Ronaldo on the eve of Wednesday's tricky quarter-final second leg with Porto - his 150th Champions League game in charge - was timed to perfection. Level at 2-2 following a tough home first leg, United needed something special to become the first English team to win at the Estadio do Dragao. Ferguson fired-up Ronaldo on his return to his homeland, urging him to stop his histrionics and show why he is the World Player of the Year.
Still desired by Real Madrid, Ronaldo could have sulked, but instead he came up with the best goal of his career to put United a step closer to the historic quintuple of trophies this season. It was just short of 40 yards and there was substantial rage and venom in the shot that rocketed past Helton in the Porto goal after just six minutes. Ronaldo did not smile as he celebrated, running towards the bench and suggesting Ferguson's comments had the desired effect.
The United manager said: "The point I made to Ronaldo was to keep the referees on his side and not turn them against him. "He's expecting a foul to be given every time. He's the best player in the world, he's going to be fouled and sometimes the referee's going to err on the other side. He's just got to accept that. If he does that, then he's a great player." And Ferguson wants his "great player" to produce, not be pampered. Ronaldo has not hit the heights of last season when he scored 42 goals, but his influence and undoubted class will be vital in the run-in for the Premier League leaders.
Everton are up next in the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday while Arsenal are their last-four opponents in the Champions League. Ronaldo, whose goal was his 21st of the campaign, said: "We have an opportunity to win everything and we are very confident that we can. We did not play fantastic in the last five or six games, but we expect the next ones will be better because of what we did in Porto. "We started the season fantastically, after which we have gone down a little bit, but I'm looking forward to being back to my best and my colleagues are as well."
The return of Rio Ferdinand after injury made a difference, calming a United defence that has looked nervy recently. Porto barely troubled Edwin van der Sar's goal and Nemanja Vidic said: "The difference between the first and second leg was that we defended as a team; we were compact. Rio brought confidence to the team, he played well. I was happy to have him next to me." @Email:akhan@thenational.ae
