In another tale of two contrasting halves, Manchester United finally returned to winning ways with a pompous victory over Brighton, whose first-half heroics were nullified as the hosts hit back clinically to pin Brighton down in their own half. More importantly, Cristiano Ronaldo returned to the scoring charts with a sublime piledriver to snuff out an unusually long goal-drought.
The first half belonged to Brighton with Manchester being subjected to eight shots out of which De Gea had to pull off 2 stunning saves to deny the invasive visitors. Harry Maguire was in decent shape as United kept Brighton at Bay for the entire first half.
The Devils were often being pegged back as the visitors kept on coming at them in the opening half. A couple of nimble-footed interventions from Harry Maguire followed by some confident passes amongst the United defenders relayed the message early that it will be tough for Bright to break free.
The change of halves and a pep-talk from Rangnick in the dressing room saw the Devils injected with new vim and vigour. One of the major changes in the second half was United’s urgency to press higher leaving Brighton clueless.
Suddenly finding themselves being at the receiving end of an ultra-attacking United, a side of the Devils that eventually seemed to be dormant in the opening half, Brighton had no response whatsoever.
Scott McTominay snatched the ball from Yves Bissouma as the latter seemed indecisive in collecting the ball and by the time he has gotten himself together, the ball was consigned to Ron’s feet. The Portuguese captain, killed the ball with a feathered opening touch, following it up with a couple of feints at attempting a shot and then once he steered clear of the Brighton defenders, he hammered home a seraphic thunderbolt from 20 awards away.
It wasn’t an SIU that ensued but the signature Manchester United celebration that saw Ronaldo sliding down the pitch to savour every precious moment of his phenomenal comeback.
If Ronaldo’s strike gave a purpose to the United concourse, what followed in the span of the next two minutes, gave them hope. As Anthony Elaga bombed down at the Brighton goal with Ronaldo following in close lockstep, the Brighton skipper failed to keep up and ended up upending the youngster from behind.
Even though the referee initially showed a yellow card, VAR intervened and changed the colour. The final strike of the night came on the back of a stunning counter-attack where Pogba kickstarted the play with a quickly taken free-kick.
He sent Bruno Fernandes darting down the same trajectory as Elanga that got United the numerical superiority. The former Sporting midfielder pranced his way past a defender, left the goalkeeper guessing in the dark and finished calmly to bring United back in the contention for the top four.
Twitter was delighted as Cristiano Ronaldo found the back of the net finally after 7 games and that too with a superlative strike at the ripe age of 37.
Goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Bruno Fernandes grant Man Utd a vital three points ➕3️⃣#MUNBHA pic.twitter.com/lbdX8mj8G1
Advertisement— Premier League (@premierleague) February 15, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo scores his first goal⚽️in 2022 one minute after Lionel Messi misses a penalty 👀
AdvertisementGoat | Pogba | Mancity| Bruno and Pogba | Mbappe#ChampionsLeague #MUNBRI | De Gea pic.twitter.com/2iYjYEihE9
— Sports Leo Africa (@SportsLeoAfrica) February 15, 2022
GRAHAM POTTER (Brighton Manager) on Cristiano Ronaldo:
“You run out of superlatives in terms of what he's achieved in his career and the player that he is, He's had an absolutely amazing career, world-class, it's out-of-this-world class. There's nothing else to say with that.” pic.twitter.com/hWG2fzvCUR
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) February 14, 2022
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.@Cristiano is all of us right now 😅 pic.twitter.com/Yfap1mTLha
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) February 15, 2022
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Cristiano Ronaldo is surrounded by a whole defense in this picture still manages to score but you won't see ESPN FC and GOAL posting this pic because his name isn't Lionel Messi. pic.twitter.com/58uWLkbM4g
— J. (@TotalKroos) February 15, 2022
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Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more outside the box goals than Messi in 2022 pic.twitter.com/D07of1vuWq
— CR7 Rap Rhymes (@cr7raprhymes) February 15, 2022
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– 804 GOALS for CRISTIANO RONALDO
– 93 PL GOALS FOR MANCHESTER UNITED
Advertisement– 5th HIGHEST GOALSCORER FOR MANCHESTER UNITED
My GOAT!!! pic.twitter.com/wheMQ5JwpF
— Chris.eth ᴺᶠᵀ Ξ #MUFC 🔴🔥 (@PrinceChrisMUFC) February 15, 2022
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23 G/A in 28 starts for Cristiano Ronaldo this season 🔥 pic.twitter.com/SwBKq6jDcU
— The CR7 Timeline. (@TimelineCR7) February 15, 2022
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The story of their careers summed up.
What a phenomenal GOAL by Cristiano Ronaldo 🐐 pic.twitter.com/WScmpO6ebR
Advertisement— Damon© (@OnlyDamon7) February 15, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo ends his goal drought one minute after Lionel Messi misses a penalty 👀 pic.twitter.com/UUvdXxiWpX
Advertisement— GOAL (@goal) February 15, 2022
