Saturday, December 11th, 2021
Trembling victory at the bottom
Ronaldo saves Rangnick from the first damage
Second game, second win: Ralf Rangnick has got off to a perfect start in his coaching life at Manchester United. But at the bottom of Norwich, the team struggled for a long time. Of course, it is Cristiano Ronaldo who ensures the narrow victory.
Record champions Manchester United with their new coach Ralf Rangnick won their away game at Norwich City with a penalty. Superstar Cristiano Ronaldo (75th), who had been fouled himself, scored the decisive goal to make it 1-0 (0-0) at the stubborn bottom of the table, Norwich. The strong hosts had some good chances themselves, but were not efficient enough. With the win, Man United moved up to fifth, but the gap to the top of the table is still eleven points.
As with Rangnick’s debut last weekend against Kellerkind Crystal Palace, things were tight, at that time the Brazilian Fred also scored a minimalist 1-0 win – and brought Rangnick a historic success: a German coach has never had his first game in the Premier League won.
Renowned ex-Bundesliga quartet
Now Ronaldo had to make the difference again, just as Rangnick had expected: “At the age of 36 he is still an incredible top professional. I’ve never seen a player his age who is so physically fit. He is still a player who can easily make the difference, “said the new coach when he took office. Now the Portuguese delivered again.
During the week Rangnick had turned his team upside down in the Champions League game against Young Boys Bern, among other things he had done without Ronaldo and the ex-Dortmund Jadon Sancho. Well, in the league, where the club has to catch up for the Champions League places after a disastrous first third of the season, the former builder of RB Leipzig relied on his regular eleven. On the offensive, Bruno Fernandes, Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Ronaldo should spray glamor and danger against the Canaries. But it turned out differently.
For a long, long time, Manchester had an incredibly difficult offensively against the extremely unruly relegation candidate. But then Norwich defender Max Aarons grabbed the superstar too hard a quarter of an hour before the end after a cross, Ronaldo then sank the penalty against the hopeless Tim Krul.
The game was not decided, nor the resistance of Norwich was broken: The former Schalke Bundesliga professional Ozan Kabak (78th) and Billy Gilmour (83rd) gave good chances after falling behind. But it should no longer be enough for something countable for the underdogs who competed alongside Kabak with Teemu Pukki (FC Schalke), Josh Sargent (Werder Bremen) and Lukas Rupp (Hoffenheim), three other former Bundesliga players. On Tuesday (8.30 p.m.) the Red Devils will be guest at the next newcomer in Brentford.