Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted with Cristiano Ronaldo's response to playing as a striker in last night's victory at Porto.

Ferguson explained his thinking: "He's the quickest player we have and we felt in that role he would stretch their two centre-halves. The goal was obviously sensational and he was always a threat, always willing to attack their defence.

"He's probably played better in a lot of games but he was isolated a lot of the time and yet his contribution was still very good. We wanted to start the game quickly, to show our intent that we wanted to win, but no one could have expected that kind of goal."