Best goal I have ever scored

It was, the disarmingly modest Cristiano Ronaldo said with a smile, a "fantastic goal, truly fantastic, the best I have scored". The Manchester United forward admitted he was already looking forward to watching on DVD the 40-yard strike which won his team last night's game at Porto. Sir Alex Ferguson described it as "magnificent" and "sensational" and admitted: "I would have to go a long way back in the memory bank to find another one like that."

He was equally effusive about Rio Ferdinand, identifying the defender's return from injury as the cornerstone for his team's first clean sheet in six games as they set up a semi-final against Arsenal. "The fact it's an all-British semi-final gives it a different type of spice," said Ferguson. "It's two good football teams and it should be a terrific encounter. We're already looking forward to it. It's a different situation to what we're used to because we haven't had a two-legged affair against Arsenal but we will look to win at Old Trafford, maybe a 1-0 win. It will not be easy but if we can win the home leg and then build on that for the second leg.

"The encouraging thing for us is that we have been leaking a lot of goals recently but now we have Ferdinand back we have got back to the position that got us here in the first place. We've got back to our foundation of not conceding goals. We had stability at the back tonight and we really restricted Porto to no real chances. I thought we controlled that part of the game really well."

United could now play Arsenal on four separate occasions in the final month of the season, twice in the Champions' League, once in the Premier League and, potentially, in the FA Cup Final.

"This win will give us confidence," said Ronaldo. "In the last five games we did not play great and I hope this will change that. It's going to be a fantastic semi-final. Arsenal play fantastic football and it will be a tough game. We know each other well, I just hope we win the tie and go to the final."

Ronaldo had played a more central position than usual and Ferguson was entitled to think his tactics had worked perfectly. "He's the quickest player we have and we felt in that role he would stretch their two center-halves. The goal was obviously sensational and he was always a threat, always willing to attack their defence. He's probably played better in a lot of games but he was isolated a lot of the time and yet his contribution was still very good. We wanted to start the game quickly, to show our intent that we wanted to win, but no one could have expected that kind of goal."

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