Tuesday night was mission accomplished. Manchester United faced Middlesbrough in one of the many third round Carling Cup ties involving several Premier League clubs.

Manchester United’s Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo was given his first start of the season after a long wait and he grabbed this opportunity to save his team from their miserable slow start in this 2008/09 campaign.

Ronaldo was one of the few big names on the pitch for the Reds but this did not disable him from having a good connection with other young players and do what he knows best.

The talismanic Portuguese winger opened the gates of goals on 25 minutes to give Man United the lead at half time.

The game ended 3 – 1 in dramatic fashion, meaning that Alex’s side had broken its goal crisis which prevented them from scoring more than a single goal in a match.

Manchester United supporters could now relish a sweet victory after such a long wait. And last night’s qualification into the last 16 was not by chance. Ronaldo’s inclusion in the team as a starter certainly worked out in great favour for the Reds to turn around their fate.

Ronaldo has got amazing statistics which shows that he had 31 premier league starts last season and that he netted 31 times.

So, making him start was probably the ultimate solution to revive Manchester United’s campaign.

And the fact that he opened the scoring at the Theatre of Dreams was certainly the key to the heavy gates of goals… these gates with a mysterious code that the rest of the squad could not comprehend.

Written by: Angela Asante