MANCHESTER, England — Cristiano Ronaldo sent Real Madrid into the Champions League quarterfinals at the expense of his former club, Manchester United, by hitting his 40th goal of the season to clinch a 2-1 victory yesterday.
The forward completed Madrid’s comeback in the 69th minute to secure a 3-2 aggregate win after the Spanish champions took advantage of United being reduced to 10 men.
Madrid gifted United a score at the start of the second half when Sergio Ramos deflected Nani’s cross into his own net. But the game swung back in the visitors’ favor in the 56th minute when Nani was sent off for a studs-up challenge on Alvaro Arbeloa.
Madrid seized control of the last-16 match with two goals in three minutes, with Luka Modric netting a powerful equalizer off the post in the 66th before Ronaldo tapped in the winner.
“[United] were very aggressive, they were very well organized tactically and the match was very difficult for us,” Madrid manager Jose Mourinho said. “But I doubt that 11 against 11 we can win that match.”
A game that started with affection for the returning Ronaldo and a 1,000th appearance for United’s Ryan Giggs ended in acrimony.
At the final whistle, Giggs was angrily pointing at referee Cuneyt Cakir as Rio Ferdinand sarcastically clapped in his face, and ManU manager Alex Ferguson made his fury clear on the touchline.
It was a defeat that was hard to take for United— and there was sympathy from Mourinho.
“Independent of that [the red card], the best team lost,’’ he said.