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Relentless Ronaldo bags two more goals in comfortable United win

Manchester United 2-0 Fulham

Cristiano Ronaldo gave another glittering array of his talents with both goals as Manchester United got back to winning ways in the Premiership against Fulham.

The Portuguese opened the scoring with a clinical volley before converting a textbook header in the second half to take his tally for the season to thirteen, with 11 coming in his last eight starts for the champions.

United were on top from the first minute, with Carlos Tevez missing two good opportunities inside the opening five minutes. First the Argentine narrowly failed to get on the end of Anderson’s fantastic delivery from the right, before his first-time effort from a Wes Brown cross was well saved by Antti Niemi.

Spectacular volley

The visitors could not hold on for much longer, however, and Ronaldo opened the scoring on ten minutes. Fulham midfielder Steven Davis’ poor attempt at a clearance from a corner was nodded on by Nemanja Vidic to Ronaldo, who connected with a sweet volley to send the ball into the top corner from inside the area.

There were further chances in the first half, with Tevez again unlucky not to beat Niemi when getting on the end of a Giggs’ centre, while Danny Murphy went close twice for Fulham with long-range efforts.

Fulham would have been happy to reach the interval with just the one-goal deficit, but Ronaldo made the game safe early in the second period. John O’Shea swung in a right-footed cross from the left flank and Ronaldo got across his marked and directed a downward header past Niemi into the far corner.

The goal meant that Ronaldo had scored twice in a match for the 12th time in his United career, but the 22-year-old was harshly robbed of the opportunity to claim his first hat-trick.

Penalty claim

The Portuguese was put clear on goal by substitute Louis Saha’s pass, but after seemingly being impeded by Niemi as both raced towards the ball, Ronaldo was booked for diving by referee Rob Styles, leading to the former Sporting man sarcastically applauding the official.

The ever-relentless Carlos Tevez and strike partner Saha, who had replaced Wayne Rooney on the England striker’s return from a foot injury, both continued to cause the Fulham defence problems in the closing stages. Saha, in particular, should have done better when afforded time and space in a one-on-one with Niemi, while Ronaldo was also denied by the Finnish number one.

Cristiano Ronaldo (Man United goalscorer):

“It’s always important to score but most important, I think, is the three points. In my opinion it was a penalty. The goalkeeper knows he touched me, but the referee made his decision - a bad decision - and we need to respect it.

“The yellow card? I have to accept it because the referee is doing his job, like I am. But I think if you look at the replay I jump because if I didn’t he would have caught me. In my opinion it’s a penalty but I don’t want to speak about this any more because most important was the three points.”

Alex Ferguson (Man United manager):

“It was a comfortable win, even though Fulham had lots of possession, but there were too many chances missed; we were a bit charitable in that respect.

“The penalty incident is the result of a pre-conceived idea the referee has that Ronaldo dives, there is no question about that. But in fairness to the referee in this case the goalkeeper has conned him. Without question the goalkeeper got Ronaldo booked.

“Why would he dive? He’s got the ball past him and he’s on a hat-trick – there’s no reason for him to dive. It’s a ridiculous decision. But we won comfortably. It was a reasonable performance; not great but we made a lot of chances.”

Man Utd:
van der Sar, Brown, Ferdinand (Carrick 75), Vidic, Evra (O’Shea 46), Ronaldo, Hargreaves, Anderson, Giggs, Tevez, Rooney (Saha 71)
Yellow Cards: Vidic, Ronaldo

Fulham:
Niemi, Omozusi, Hughes, Stefanovic, Konchesky, Davies, Davis, Murphy, Bouazza (Ki-Hyeon 71), Dempsey (Healy 64), Kuqi
Yellow Cards: Davies

Goals:
[1-0] Ronaldo, 10
[2-0] Ronaldo, 58