The 37-year-old giant is unstoppable and he’s reaching the next level. Yesterday, Manchester United got the opportunity to redeem their Champions League hope for the next season as Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur dropped down.
Fans were not optimistic due to their previous match outcomes, but Ronaldo stunned everyone with his remarkable performance and gave his fans big hope to enter the next UCL season.
Manchester United in the beginning got the leverage and with an amazing performance by Cristiano Ronaldo, the host got an early lead.
Although Norwich fought back to equalize the score, who thought Ronaldo was in full mood to score a hat trick. In the game, it looked like Ronaldo was in charge to put his team in the fourth position on the table.
Manchester United’s superb win over Norwich puts them in the fourth position
The kick-off whistle blew and there Manchester United players took charge of the attack. Within seven minutes, Elanga dispossessed Norwich’s defender with the clean pass made by him, and Ronaldo picking the sweet spot dispatched it to give a united one-goal lead.
The home fans were on their feet and joined Ronaldo with SUII. Before the second half, Alex Telles with a brilliant corner, his ball found Ronaldo’s head to score the second game of the game and the crowd went crazy.
But the happiness didn’t last long when in the first half’s extra time Dowell scored the first goal for his side to give little hope.
And then in the second half things got changed after Pukki scored the equalizing goal to flip the whole scenario at Old Trafford.
Norwich tried to make a three-two score but couldn’t pass through David De Gea. In the 76th minute, Manchester United won the free-kick out of the box and Ronaldo was ready to take it.
With an outstanding strike, Ronaldo completed his 60th career hat trick and led his team to the winning platform again. With that win, Manchester United earned the fifth position in the Premier League table.
Ralf wants more from the Reds
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick expressed that he wants more from his side. “It should have been a less stressful afternoon, even more so after we had scored two brilliant goals.
Being 2-0 up should have made life a lot easier for us but it didn’t because we just didn’t defend well enough, for both their goals.
We could have conceded even a goal earlier on, in two transitional moments, and it is exactly those things that we need to do a lot better in the upcoming games.”
On Cristiano Ronaldo, Ralf said, “Yes, it is [remarkable]. Especially the second and third goals were brilliant. [He showed] a lot of physicality with the header and he was quite like against Tottenham today, the difference-maker.”
Away game against Liverpool – 20th April
Manchester United will be facing Liverpool in the away game in a few days, he shared,
“We have to focus on our performance. The result was good, it will lift our momentum and the confidence of the team, but we have to be realistic. With that kind of performance it will be almost impossible to get something out of the away game against Liverpool, and then also away against Arsenal and home against Chelsea will be difficult.
We need to play better against the ball with more physicality, with more aggressiveness. This was the biggest issue and the biggest thing that I was not happy with today.”
He concluded, “The 2-0 lead should’ve made life easier for us,” Rangnick said after the match. “But it didn’t because we didn’t defend well. Both goals we should’ve defended much better and David de Gea kept us in the game with a brilliant save.
“If not for David De Gea we could have been 3-2 down, and then probably even lost the game. This should not happen. With all respect to Norwich, I know there are no easy games in the league, but we have to defend better than we did today. Even more so if we think about the next two or three games.”
Dean Smith left Manchester United in disappointment
Dean Smith was highly disappointed after the loss, he shared “I was disappointed in the first half to go in having conceded two,” he told BBC Sport. “The manner of the goals we conceded was really poor. We’re disappointed with that.
“I’m disappointed we haven’t got anything from the match. We had the chance after three minutes when Teemu Pukki went through.
“We started the second half well by getting it back to 2-2 and David de Gea pulling off the save to keep it 2-2.”
He further said, “He gave a problem to both (Victor) Lindelof and (Harry) Maguire with his running down the sides, clever running as well. He made good movements and caused those problems all game and got an assist and a goal as well.”
With the previous loss from Everton, many of the fans and former players raised questions about the team’s ability to produce a winning performance.
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