Ronaldo targets FA Cup Flourish Sunday April 17, 2005
Ronaldo targets victory
An FA Cup final man-of-the-match award has pride of place in Cristiano Ronaldo's Manchester home - even though he has never won one.
By common consent, the Portuguese winger was by far the best player on view at the Millennium Stadium last May as Manchester United hammered Millwall 3-0.
Ronaldo scored the opener as the Red Devils' clinched the trophy for a record 11th time yet, to the amazement of a capacity crowd, England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson deemed Ruud van Nistelrooy to be the most influential player on the pitch even though the Dutchman had a quiet afternoon until his late brace sealed victory.
And Van Nistelrooy recognised Eriksson's blunder almost immediately, handing Ronaldo the trophy to keep for himself.
"Ruud was given the man-of-the-match award but he offered it to me," the Portuguese international told the official Manchester United magazine.
"I accepted and now I have it in the sitting room of my house in Manchester.
"It was a lovely gesture. I never expected him to do something like that. He wanted me to have it and I was very grateful.
"It is one of the only trophies I have in Manchester. The others are all back home in Madeira."
With Ryan Giggs likely to be out, United will be relying on Ronaldo to open up Newcastle in Sunday's Millennium Stadium semi-final.
Amazingly for a side coached by Sir Alex Ferguson, the Red Devils are badly struggling in the goals department, netting just five times in their last six games, four of which came in the last round at Southampton.
With Louis Saha definitely missing, the United boss must decide which of his remaining offensive players to trust with the task of breaking down the Magpies' inconsistent defence.
As leading scorer and most in-form forward on United's books, Wayne Rooney is certain to start, while Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to provide the attacking thrust down the touchline.
The position of Van Nistelrooy is less certain. Badly out of touch since his return from his long-term Achilles injury, the Dutchman has now gone seven games without a goal, the longest barren spell of his entire United career.
Yet any doubt in Ferguson's mind about fielding the £18.5million forward will be balanced by the knowledge that Newcastle are one of the former PSV Eindhoven man's most favoured opponents.
Van Nistelrooy has scored eight of his 122 United goals against the Magpies and has only failed to find the net against them once in seven outings, a record that will almost certainly see him start in Cardiff as the Red Devils look to to take another step towards retaining the trophy for the first time.
Yet, such is the disappointment at a season turning rapidly sour, even assistant manager Carlos Queiroz admits an FA Cup triumph alone would not be a cause for celebration.
"We cannot say it is a good season just because we win the FA Cup," he told BBC GMR.
"The major expectation of Manchester United is to go as far as we can in Europe and our first priority is always the league.
"If we accept winning the FA Cup represents a good season, we are not at the level everybody expects us to be."
