Ronaldo At The Death (Manchester United 2 - Sporting Lisbon 1)

Wow....what a blistering finish after a lacklustre start.

Fergie brought in the changes after the 1-0 lost to Bolton. As expected, Ronaldo returned to the starting lineup. Fringe players Fletcher and O'Shea also featured, replacing Hargreaves and Brown respectively. Saha was sent upfront alone, with Anderson, Nani and Ronaldo supporting in the attack whenever possible.

The game started brightly for us but it slowly went downhill as Sporting showed a greater urgency and understanding. Our players were guilty of trying to make the fancy pass far too often for my liking, and it resulted in way too many misplaced passes. It wasn't a surprise that Sporting went ahead in the 20th minutes, albeit from a rather fluke goal.

Abel's miskicked cross somehow beat Kuszczak on his near post. Maybe he should have been better positioned but frankly I felt it was just an incredibly fluke goal. However, given the way Sporting had approached the game till that point, it was a well deserved lead. This was especially impressive given the fact that the average age of the Sporting players on the pitch was probably no older than 23!

To make it even more astounding, we were outplayed for the rest of the first half. No one in a red jersey performed well. We were simply shit.

After his tirade at half time against Bolton, I'm sure Fergie gave the same, but this time to his players. The non-performing Fletcher and Nani were both taken off and replaced but Tevez and Giggs.

And what a difference it made. We played with so much more urgency and actually looked threatening going forward, something which was never a feature in the first half.

It was not surprising that Tevez levelled the scores on the hour. Saha cleverly laid the ball on for Ronaldo to shoot, and his shot, which incidentally was going wide, hit Tevez and rebounded into the net. It did look like and own goal....but hey who was counting? OT burst into life while the players celebrated.

The Sporting players were deflated while we pressed on for the winner. Some great goalkeeping and desperate defending prevented us from taking the lead.

2 minutes into the 4 minutes of injury time, Anderson won a freekick outside the box. Up stepped Ronaldo to send one of his trademarked belters into the net. It probably took a deflection but I certainly wasn't looking as I was jumping up and down in the room, possibly waking the entire estate.

It was cruel for Sporting to lose in such a manner after their brave performance, but given our determination in the second half, it was well earned.

This result was important for a number of reasons.

1. We qualifed from the group as the top team irregardless of the final result against Roma.
2. Ferguson's resting of Ronaldo at the weekend was justified to a certain extent. I still think Ronaldo should have played in that game and rested in this one, but at least this victory lessens the pain. Let's just hope that result will not be crucial in the grander scheme of things to come.....ie winning the premiership.
3. We can play our reserves and fringe players in Rome. It would be good to see how some of the youngsters can handle the pressure of playing in a hostile environment in Rome.
4. We might actually get a chance to see Dong. Having him play means selling more shirts in China.
5. Since the Roma game is now basically academic, maybe a good portion of the fans would not be travelling to Rome. Remember in the first half of the year when our travelling contigent were ambushed by the Roma Ultras. Let's hope a repeat is not on the cards.
6. Our main players might not get to travel to Rome in a couple of weeks time, thus resting them for that weekend game at Anfield. I'd be miffed if we do not get anything from that game, especially if our players are well rested compared to their counterparts.