Manchester United 1 Real Madrid 2 (agg 2-3) Ronaldo returns to crush Fergie's Euro dream
By MARTIN SAMUEL PUBLISHED: 21:37 GMT, 5 March 2013 | UPDATED: 01:09 GMT, 6 March 2013
It was rotten luck. It was highly debatable. And it will have been picked over until last orders or lights out at every bar, club and sitting room in Britain. Yet the bottom line is this: just because your fancy-dan winger gets sent off, whether rightly or not, it does not mean you have to concede two goals in the next 12 minutes and lose the tie. Manchester United were not forced to play without a central defender or goalkeeper. Nani has never been considered so vital to any defensive effort that his absence should have sent his team into a loop.
Match winner: Ronaldo's goal sent his former team-mates crashing out of the Champions League
Match facts
Man United: De Gea, Da Silva (Valencia 87), Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, Cleverley (Rooney 73), Nani, Welbeck (Young 80), Giggs, van Persie.
Subs not used: Lindegaard, Evans, Hernandez, Kagawa.
Booked: Evra, Carrick
Sent off: Nani 57.
Scorer: Ramos (OG) 48.
Real Madrid: Diego Lopez, Arbeloa (Modric 59), Varane, Sergio Ramos, Fabio Coentrao, Khedira, Alonso, Di Maria (Kaka 42), Ozil (Pepe 71), Ronaldo,Higuain.
Subs not used: Adan, Benzema, Albiol, Callejon.
Booked: Arbeloa, Pepe
Scorers: Modric 67, Ronaldo 69.
Referee: Cuneyt Cakir (Turkey)
Attendance: 74,959
At the moment of his exit, United's priority was to hold on to a 1-0 lead. With Nani or without, the objective was to regroup and resist. That is not to say Nani's dismissal was unimportant, or that it did not have significant impact on the game. Just that it did not make Real Madrid's victory inevitable. Chelsea lost John Terry at the Nou Camp last season while 1-0 down. They did not lose the match that night, or the tie.
'Never give the referee a reason to send you off,' said Roy Keane, a lone voice of dissent in a television studio all too willing to cast Manchester United as hapless victims of a dastardly act. He had a point. In defence of Cuneyt Cakir, the Turkish referee whose judgment will go down as having changed the complexion of the tournament, Howard Webb was pilloried after the 2010 World Cup final for not sending off Nigel de Jong for a high challenge.
In real time, perhaps Cakir thought he had seen the same from Nani on Real Madrid's Alvaro Arbeloa. He hadn't. De Jong's was far worse. Yet the nuances would have been harder to spot. Nani's eyes on the ball, not the opponent, the fact that he was trying to bring an aerial clearance under control rather than win it from Arbeloa.
Mod stunner: The former Spurs midfielder fired home an unstoppable equaliser
Cakir will only have seen Nani connect with Arbeloa's ribs with the potential for devastating effect. He went straight to red and, from there, the balance of power changed. Until that moment, United looked comfortable.
Not coasting, but with their noses in front from a Sergio Ramos own goal. The best chances had belonged to them and they looked likelier to score next, too. Jose Mourinho, however, senses weakness like a shark smells blood and the moment United were reduced he seized his chance.
He replaced Arbeloa with Luka Modric, moved Gonzalo Higuain wide, and that combination of talents, plus an inevitable winner from Cristiano Ronaldo, took the tie.
Haunted: Cristiano Ronaldo scored the winner against his former club but didn't celebrate
Modric has scored only one goal since arriving from Tottenham in the summer but his second was worth the wait. He had been on the field eight minutes when he received the ball roughly 20 yards out and cut to the right before striking a shot that curled out of the reach of David de Gea, and into the net.
There was a certainty about Madrid's celebrations that suggested this was only the start. Three minutes later, they were ahead. It is eight Champions League games and eight Champions League goals this season for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ram raid: United were on course to progress when Sergio Ramos scored an own goal
He celebrated the other seven, but this one was different. He remained stony-faced but must have known this day was coming. He was always going to return to haunt Manchester United in this tournament eventually.
A player of his ability simply cannot help it. Mesut Ozil played a delightful backheel to Higuain and he hit a low cross, which Ronaldo stretched for at the far post and, of course, reached.
For all the sense of injustice, the sad fact is that no United player succeeded in putting the ball in the net last night. United's lead, erased so efficiently, had come through a defensive error when the otherwise outstanding Ramos deflected Nani's cross into his own net after a disconcerting touch by Danny Welbeck.
Red alert: United were reduced to 10 men after Nani was given his marching orders
United had their chances, not least when hitting a post through Nemanja Vidic in the first half, and even Mourinho admitted the best team lost, but this defeat cut deeper than one dodgy decision. It is no longer safe for an elite team to sell their best player abroad.
The nature of the modern Champions League makes any sale between equals potentially dangerous.
This may not be the last United have seen of Ronaldo and already a sizable chunk has been lopped off his £80million fee. Remarkably, Cakir managed to overshadow the other controversy of the night, the exclusion of Wayne Rooney.
Sir Alex Ferguson seems to save his boldest manoeuvres for the biggest matches in Europe, and this was no exception. Even by his standards, to replace Rooney with Ryan Giggs, 40 next birthday, was a jaw-dropper.
Sidelined: Rooney was sensationally dropped for the match and watched from the bench
It was a home tie with Real Madrid that convinced David Beckham he was no longer wanted at Old Trafford, and Rooney may feel similarly isolated after this.
There had been rumours, whispers, prior to the game, but few trusted them. To leave Rooney out of this fixture would be a statement so emphatic the repercussions would surely stretch beyond the final whistle.
When Beckham did not make the starting line-up in 2003, his United career was as good as over.
He came on that night and scored twice, but the reality was clear. Rooney came on, too, but his wife Coleen had already given the game away expressing her astonishment on Twitter.
Slim pickings: Chances were at a premium in the first half, Welbeck went close - but was offside
That will have gone down well with Ferguson, too. His official explanation was that Rooney was unfit, but his injuries seem increasingly non-specific. A parting of the ways may be inevitable. Club and player will protest to the contrary to keep the peace for now, but few would gamble on Rooney still being a Manchester United player this time next year, particularly if the interest from Paris Saint-Germain proves genuine. It is not just who was out, but who was in that told a tale.
Giggs, playing his 1,000th professional game, was the man on the right of midfield behind Robin van Persie and Welbeck, the vindication being that, in the first half at least, he was arguably the best player on the field.
Heads up: Vidic's effort rattled off the post mid way through the first 45 minutes
Most of United's finest work came through him and his defensive ethic stopped Madrid playing out from the back.
Ferguson thinks we will never see his like again, and he is probably right. He had the energy of players half his age and the ability of one earning twice his salary. Ronaldo would have wished for the early impact the Welshman made; Giggs would have envied his former team-mate's second half.
The returning Ronaldo got the biggest pre-match cheer from the Old Trafford crowd - and top billing from the stadium announcer, who introduced him immediately before kick-off - but took a while to get over the occasion. Giggs managed to keep emotion out of it, as always.
When he took on Fabio Coentrao, hassling the younger man with purpose and the odd stepover before winning a corner, it was one of the highlights of the night. The lowlights you will know by now.
Landmark: Giggs made his 1,000th appearance in a United shirt on the night
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Sign of the times: Ronaldo received a warm welcome on his first match back at Old Trafford
Putting the boot in: Ronaldo slides in on Cleverley (left) in the first half
