Ronaldo praise despite miss

Sir Alex Ferguson praised Cristiano Ronaldo for his performance in the Champions League semi final first-leg between Manchester United and Barcelona. Ronaldo looked the more able between the battle of two of the youngest prospect on the planet; Ronaldo and Messi.

“Cristiano Ronaldo was a bit unlucky with the penalty,” said the Scot. “Maybe it came too early in the first minute of the match. He leant back a little bit … disappointing. Nevertheless, he was fantastic tonight.

“With our record at Old Trafford, with the crowd behind us then I think we have a good chance of going through.

“They didn’t make a lot of chances, although they had a lot of play on the edge of our box. Our defending was very good. In that respect it was a professional performance.

“But we should have done better with our possession. We gave the ball away too easily I felt. We want to impose ourselves much better. Next week, I think we’ll do that."