26 February 2007, by Sean Gillen

Fulham 1-2 Manchester United:
Match reaction

Ronaldo and Ferguson delight at vital win

Cristiano Ronaldo admits that Manchester United were fortunate to come away from their Premiership match at Fulham with the three points, after the Portuguese scored a superb late winner at Craven Cottage.

United had been outplayed for much of the match on Saturday afternoon, but increased their lead at the top of the Premiership to nine points after Ronaldo’s 88th minute strike.

“Maybe we were lucky,” said the Portuguese, who picked up the Man of the Match award.

“After the Champions League I think the team showed that it was tired. It was a very tough game, very difficult. I think Fulham played very well. I scored an important goal and I’m very happy.”

“I think Fulham played better in the second half, but football is like that. Sometimes you play better and you don’t win the game. Today we were a little lucky, but we tried hard and that is important.”

Following Ronaldo’s strike, the 22-year-old sprinted over to the United bench to celebrate with his team-mates, but the winger revealed that there was one player in particular that he was looking to share the goal with.

“I ran to the bench for Gabby (Heinze). Not only Gabby, but for the bench, my colleagues – Patrice Evra, Gary Neville – but especially for Gabby because he’s my good friend and he told me before the game that I would score a goal so I went straight to him.”

United manager Alex Ferguson was pleased to see his side come through such a tough fixture, and agreed that Ronaldo was a worthy winner of the Man of the Match award after his contribution throughout the game.

“We will play better than that, but you have to give credit to Fulham as they were aggressive and never gave us time to settle and that made it difficult for us,” said the Scot.

“But we have to thank the two goalscorers for digging us out of a hole.”

“Ronaldo was fantastic the whole game. He has such courage – I don’t know how many times he was fouled, an awful lot – but he kept going and I think he deserves the Man of the Match and his goal.”

Fulham 1-2 Manchester United 2-0 - match report