Clinical Cristiano ‘tricks for Man United
The NFL's greatest rose to applaud the soccer great.
Tom Brady picked the perfect moment to come to Old Trafford to witness a rarity from Cristiano Ronaldo: A Manchester United hat trick.
While the record seventime Super Bowl winner is enjoying the start of his retirement, Ronaldo is showing there's still goals left in this 37-year-old veteran.
The header that completed Saturday's treble against Tottenham required something more from the Michael Jordan playbook with a leap in the air to meet a corner, ensuring United won 3-2 and went fourth in the Premier League.
Ronaldo was able to savor the acclaim of the crowd after being substituted moments after the 81st-minute winner, with Brady among those providing a standing ovation.
And then the GOAT made it down to the field to exchange post-match thoughts with one of the "Greatest of All Time" kicking a round ball after Ronaldo took his career goals' tally to 807. United was on its way to winning the title 14 years ago. Now it's just about securing Champions League qualification in Ronaldo's first season back from Real Madrid.
The title fight is between Manchester City and Liverpool, with Jürgen Klopp's team again closing the gap on the leaders to three points by beating Brighton 2-0 on Saturday through Luis Diaz's header and Mohamed Salah's penalty.
There's some way to catch Salah's league-leading 20 goals this season, with Ronaldo eight behind among the players second on the leaderboard.
But in a season when his contribution has been patchy, this was a timely contribution from Ronaldo. Especially when there had been some disquiet at United over an injured Ronaldo going back to Portugal while his team was losing to Manchester City last Sunday.
The opening goal in the 12th minute was certainly impressive with Fred flicking the ball for Ronaldo, who sent a swerving shot into the top left corner from long-range.
Tottenham did level through Harry Kane's penalty in the 35th minute after Alex Telles handled Dejan Kulusevski's cross.
But Ronaldo ensured the lead only lasted three minutes, by getting on the end of Jadon Sancho's cutback and beating Hugo Lloris.
But then came the powerful header from Ronaldo meeting the corner from Telles.
RELEGATION SCRAP The day's other game saw Ivan Toney's late double give Brentford a 2-0 win over relegation-threatened Burnley to move nine points clear of the drop zone.