RONNIE’S AT THE WHEEL
Genius Cristiano on a one-man Euro crusade
The back five lasted 38 minutes, Paul Pogba lasted 69. Manchester United were never ahead and the 90 minutes were up with them trailing, again.
Yet here they are, top of their Champions League group going into the fifth game and likely to qualify with Villarreal and Atalanta scheduled to meet on the final day. how do they do it? Well, you know by now. It isn’t Ole at the wheel in europe. It’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Another volley. Another late escape. he is a man on a mission this season and it’s a solo escapade much of the time. This is his fourth scoring Champions League game in a row since returning to Old Trafford.
And, yes, questions will always be asked about the wisdom of building a team around a player who will turn 37 in February when so much young talent sits on the bench. Yet how could any manager resist him in this form?
It isn’t just the quantity of goals that Ronaldo scores, it’s the quality. he does things his contemporaries simply cannot. The volley against Tottenham on Saturday; the way he started and finished both goals here. Marcus Rashford departed with 21 minutes remaining, having had little effect.
Ronaldo was there to the end, still going, still brilliant, still defining Manchester United in europe this season.
he orchestrated the quick exchange of passes that again bamboozled an Atalanta defence for the first goal, his sheer determination forced the second.
Until those points, Atalanta looked to have the game under control. United didn’t threaten much after Josip Ilicic had given Atalanta a 12th-minute lead, and the Italians must have felt confident they would see the game out for victory, even with five minutes’ additional time.
But Ronaldo takes over in these situations. he spots an angle, an opening, a moment of weakness, a positional error. his movement creates space, his mind hatches smart plans, his feet do the rest. And Manchester United get away with it. Again.
It was a good result, one that may end up securing Manchester United’s place in the last 16 given the way the fixtures now unfold.
Yet United were second best again for long periods last night. Behind going into first-half injury time, behind going into secondhalf injury time. Then up pops you-know-who. The away end belted out their favourite song about Cristiano Ronaldo making england look rotten but, let’s face it, he’s not making Manchester United appear much better.
A corner turned, then? United would like to think so but it’s hard to buy into that narrative. The problem this season is United have turned so many corners they end up back where they started.
A corner turned with the comeback against Atalanta last month, another with the win at Tottenham on Saturday, another here. So many corners. So many moments that are supposed to herald change. Yet how does a team with so much talent make it so hard?
A huge error by David de Gea accounted for Atalanta’s opening goal and an injury to Raphael Varane scuppered Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s best-laid plans for five at the back but United were too careless, too ill-disciplined to truly deserve a whole lot from this match.
Pogba was substituted after 69 minutes and was lucky to last that long. With him went Rashford, who wasn’t the foil for Ronaldo that edinson Cavani was at Tottenham. There were 34 minutes plus injury time remaining when Duvan Zapata scored what Atalanta must have felt would be the winner and they were relatively comfortable in that spell.
Zapata was impressive. A constant threat and a pest for United’s back line in a way harry Kane wasn’t on Saturday.
his goal was well-taken, too. A deft through ball from Jose Luis Palomino and the Colombian splitting harry Maguire and eric Bailly with a perfectly-timed run. he slipped the ball past De Gea and a flag went up for offside.
The first replay showed that to be quite obviously erroneous. What took the German VAR team so long to reach the same conclusion was a mystery, but the tension built and built. Slovenian referee Slavko Vincic stood rigid, awaiting instruction.
The crowd whistled and created a rising cacophony in anticipation. They would have received messages from home, with the benefit of replays, too.
Solskjaer looked nervous, Gian Piero Gasperini of Atlanta calm. They must have known what was coming. Goal confirmed, the stadium erupted. It was no more than Atalanta deserved. United, too. But that’s part of Ronaldo’s genius. On nights like this, he just won’t let United get what is coming to them.
The late equalising goal — his second of the night — was a move he started and finished.
his determined run eventually saw the ball go to Mason Greenwood, who flicked it back the way it came and Ronaldo struck it on the volley — low this time, not like his goal against Tottenham — nestling in the corner of goalkeeper Juan Musso’s net.
It was much the same at the end of the first half. Ronaldo laid the ball off, made the run, got it back from an exquisite backheel by Bruno Fernandes and hit a powerful, low shot that rendered Musso helpless.
It’s like the click of the magician’s fingers that brings the stooge back into the room. Ronaldo clicks his fingers and United are back in the game. Last night, he clicked twice.
Atalanta must again be wondering how they let it slip. Solskjaer stuck with the 5-3-2 strategy that worked so well against Tottenham but while it gives United a coherent shape, Atalanta are a better team than Tottenham.
They played balls over the top to the discomfort of Maguire. Bailly was at full stretch and not greatly convincing in place of the injured Victor Lindelof. As for Pogba, it is fair to say he was no Fred. Passes went horribly astray and several very poor decisions were made.
One saw him hassled deep in his own half, eventually attempting a suicidal square pass across his own penalty area to alleviate the pressure.
Zapata cut it out and Bailly made a superb block to avert a goal. Soon after, Varane went off injured and Solskjkaer abandoned the formation that may have saved his job at the weekend.
Questions remain about the way forward and this was another 90 minutes comprised of little more than moments.
One came as early as the third minute when a Scott McTominay shot, going nowhere, caught a wicked deflection, wrong-footed Musso and skidded agonisingly out of his reach before gently