Chronicle Editor
Manchester United manager Ralf Rangnick is hoping Cristiano Ronaldo can reproduce his form from the weekend when they face against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League today.
The Portugal forward returned from a hip injury to roll back the years with a hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League on Saturday, laying claim to the all-time leading scorer record in professional football with 807 goals.
With the last-16 tie at home to Atletico level at 1-1 after the first leg in Madrid, Rangnick said he had no concerns that Ronaldo, 37, might struggle after his exertions against Spurs.
“His overall performance was good, if not very good, and this is what we hope to see from him again tomorrow night,” the interim manager told a news conference yesterday.
“I’m not worried that he’s not been able to recover.
He’s always been a person that looks after himself and his body. He knows what to do.
“If he can score another three goals, we will see. It’s not easy to score three goals against this team at all.”
United winger Anthony Elanga netted in the 80th minute to cancel out an early goal by Atletico’s Joao Felix in the first leg and Rangnick said his team needed to show better focus at Old Trafford so they did not have to chase the game again.
“We saw in the first half in Madrid what we shouldn’t do, how we shouldn’t play, and this was a big topic for us yesterday and today when we spoke pre-match about tomorrow’s game,” he added.
“We have a fantastic opportunity to be in the top eight teams of Europe and this is exactly what we’re trying to achieve.
“It’s very important (not to concede first). Even more so against a team like Atletico, who don’t mind the other team having the ball.
“In their last four or five games, they had less than 50 percent possession.
We are aware of that, we want to try not to concede at all if possible, but it will be important to score the first goal ourselves.”
Meanwhile, Covid-19 positive Bruno Fernandes is in a “last-minute race” to be fit for the return leg of Manchester United’s Champions League last-16 tie against Atletico Madrid, manager Ralf Rangnick said.
Fernandes, who has nine goals and 14 assists for United this season, missed their 3-2 win over Tottenham Hotspur on the weekend, along with teammates Luke Shaw and Scott McTominay.
While giving an update on the status of the trio, Rangnick said Bruno’s absence was caused by a positive Covid-19 test.
“With Scotty, I hope (he is fit) but he had some muscular problems with his calf,” Rangnick said.
“That’s why we decided not to play him (against Spurs), because Scotty . . . is only valuable if he can perform with 100 percent of his physical capacity.
“Luke hopefully will be back in training and Bruno we will have to wait and see until Tuesday (today).
This will probably be a last-minute race with him — due to Covid-19.
“We have to be careful with Covid-19 tests. David (de Gea) was the same.
David yesterday was out, he was not supposed to play but then it turned out that his first fast test was false.” — Reuters
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