Cristiano Ronaldo netted a brace in a superb 4-1 victory over Newcastle to mark his Old Trafford homecoming in style and fire Manchester United top of the Premier League.
Today was undoubtedly about one man, Ronaldo, so it would be easy to forget three points were still at stake at Old Trafford. A roar of excitement ensued every Ronaldo touch, with his first touch coming in the penalty area as a last gasp Isaac Hayden header flicked the ball away from Ronaldo’s grasps when he appeared to be through on goal. On the stroke of HT, the inevitable happened, Ronaldo opened the scoring, following in Mason Greenwood’s shot that proved too hot to handle for Freddie Woodman, who could only fumble into the path of a grateful Ronaldo who fired home on his second coming debut.
Newcastle clearly hadn’t read the script, and when Miguel Almirón broke from deep and found Allan Saint-Maximin, the Frenchman slid Javier Manquillo through on goal with the full-back finishing like a striker. Luke Shaw took matters into his own hands as he burst through the middle and slipped Ronaldo through on goal, who made no mistake, drilling through the legs of Woodman to re-establish United’s grip on proceedings.
Joelinton forced David de Gea into action, beating away the Brazilians advances, but that was as close as Steve Bruce’s side came to finding an equaliser before Bruno Fernandes struck an absolute peach from 25-yards into Woodman’s top right-hand corner.
Jesse Lingard rubbed salt in Newcastle’s wounds in stoppage time, wriggling free in the box to curl an effort into the bottom corner put the cherry on the top of a fantastic day for United, seeing them secure the points and finish the day sitting pretty at the Premier League summit.
