Sir Alex Ferguson last night paid Cristiano Ronaldo what must be the supreme compliment in his eyes. As a centre-forward, the Manchester United manager remarked that Ronaldo reminded him of himself. It was said with a warm smile on a night in which Manchester United virtually guaranteed qualification for a Champions League semi-final in which they will almost certainly have to overcome Barcelona, who won 1-0 at Schalke."It changed the game," Ferguson reflected. "It was a fantastic header, although after that we rode our luck in the second half, particularly in the first 15 minutes. Roma had some good chances but failed to take them and those are the breaks you need in football.
"Ronaldo has played as a striker before, against Portsmouth he scored twice, and his balance and courage mean he can play anywhere in the last half of the pitch. His spring surprised the defender; I thought he believed Ronaldo would not get there. It was a real centre-forward's header. It reminded me of me.
"But the decisive moment was to bring on Owen Hargreaves and play Wayne Rooney and Ronaldo through the middle. I should have done it earlier and after that we were much more dangerous." The only blot on the evening was a serious-looking knee injury to Nemanja Vidic that will be assessed in the morning.
Ferguson's other tactical surprise was to ignore Ryan Giggs, who was due to make his 750th appearance for Manchester United last night, and use Ji-Sung Park on the left flank.
"I just felt Ryan put in a lot on Saturday on a very heavy pitch and I was going to use him at a moment where I felt I needed him. But once we were in front it put a different complexion on the whole evening."
As Ferguson remarked, a 2-0 victory away from home is "an absolutely outstanding result". After each Champions League result, the French sports daily, L'Equipe, prints a number that signifies the percentage of teams that go through after a certain result. After a 2-0 win away from home in the modern Champions League, that number is 100. No team has ever overturned a result like this, especially at Old Trafford. Ferguson, however, was taking nothing for granted. He said: "We have to earn the right to be in the semi-final. We know Francesco Totti is an inspirational figure and he will be back but we also know what Old Trafford can be on a big European night and we will be ready for him."
Although the job is not yet finished, United's thoughts will turn to their probable semi-final opponents, Barcelona. Striker Bojan Krkic, 17, struck the all-important away goal in the 12th minute to give the Spanish giants a slender victory over Schalke in Gelsenkirchen.
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