2 October 2006, by Sean Gillen

Outstanding Ronaldo drives Untied to Premiership summit

Portuguese Abroad Weekly Round-up

Manchester United returned to the top of the Premiership as Cristiano Ronaldo continues to shine at Old Trafford, helping his side to a 2-0 win over Newcastle. United go top after Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, with Ricardo Carvalho, were surprisingly held 1-1 at home by Aston Villa. Pedro Mendes gave away a dubious penalty as Portsmouth were beaten for the second successive match, 2-1 at Tottenham.

Nuno Valente made his first start since the opening day as Everton conceded a 94th minute equaliser at home to Manchester City to draw 1-1, and Ricardo Vaz Te was a late substitute in Bolton’s 2-0 win over Liverpool at the Reebok.

In Spain, Maniche’s first start for Atletico Madrid resulted in a 1-1 draw with Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. Miguel was rested as Valencia hammered Gimnastic 4-0 and Duda was introduced late on in Sevilla’s 1-0 win over Getafe. Deco started for Barcelona as the champions came from behind to beat Bilbao 3-1, while Beto came off injured during his Recreativo side’s 2-1 home victory over Betis.

Jose Nunes was in the line-up as Mallorca were beaten 2-1 at home by Villarreal, and Fabio Felicio was taken off with eleven minutes left, with the game scoreless, before his Real Sociedad side let in two late goals to go down 2-0 at Deportivo.

In Serie A, pressure continues to grow on Inter manager Roberto Mancini, with Luis Figo coming off the bench but unable to inspire the Nerazurri to improve on a 1-1 draw at Cagliari. Ricardo Esteves came on in the last minute of Reggina’s 1-1 draw with Atalanta, while Jose Vidigal watched Livorno’s 1-0 win at Messina from the bench.

Ze Antonio’s joy at earning an international call-up was short lived as his Borussia Monchengladbach side were hammered 3-0 by Werder Bremen, who were without Hugo Almeida. Alex was an unused substitute as Wolfsburg stunned Bayern Munich, beating the German champions 1-0 at home.

Pedro Pauleta’s Paris Saint-Germain slipped down to 14th in the French league after losing 1-0 at St Etienne on Sunday evening. Tiago came on for the final 20 minutes of Lyon’s 1-0 victory at Sochaux, while Marco Ramos was on the bench for Lens’ 2-1 defeat at Nancy.

In Scotland, Bruno Aguiar played the full 90 minutes as Hearts beat Dundee United 4-0 to keep up with league leaders Celtic, with the champions winning 1-0 against a Falkirk side containing Pedro Moutinho.

Standard Liege’s inconsistent form in Belgium continued with a 2-1 defeat at Gent, leaving them 9th in the Jupiler league. Nuno Coelho, Miguel Areias and Sergio Conceicao all started, and were all booked, as Standard picked up six yellows and one red card during the game.

Dynamo Moscow drew 1-1 with Kryliya Sovetov in the Russian Premier League, while Carlos’ Steaua Bucharest were held to a 1-1 with Poli Lasi in Romania. In Greece, Daniel Fernandes kept goal as PAOK Salonika drew 1-1 at home with Apollon.

Star Performer

Cristiano Ronaldo

In a quiet week for the Portuguese players playing across the continent, Ronaldo once again lit up Old Trafford and was at the heart of most of United’s best play as they beat Newcastle 2-0 to return to the top of the Premiership.

Earlier round-ups:
25/09/06 Star Performer - Cristiano Ronaldo
18/09/06 Star Performer - Sergio Conceicao
11/09/06 Star Performer - Ricardo Carvalho
28/08/06 Star Performer - Figo
21/08/06 Star Performer - Deco