Everton 1 Man Utd 2: Cristiano Ronaldo’s 700th club goal puts Red Devils fifth with comeback win
THE smile from Cristiano Ronaldo was of supreme satisfaction.
Just as the finish that summed up so much of why he is one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of football.
What that reaction really meant as he stood in the Merseyside rain with his hands clasped just above his stomach was, however, open to question.
Was it simply about reaching the incredible milestone of 700 goals in his club career, in just 943 appearances with Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus?
Was it anything to do with the fact that his brilliant 42nd minute strike had just completed a barnstorming first half comeback by Erik ten Hag’s side?
Or really, was it more about showing the Dutchman and the rest of the world that he remains a potent force when so many had believed his status as one of the great superstars of the game was already history?
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The betting would be on that last theory, as Antony joined him to imitate his gesture in what was such a momentous moment.
The irony was that he shouldn’t have been on the pitch at all for United manager Ten Hag had once again consigned him to the bench.
Anthony Martial was preferred in the starting line-up, but the Frenchman injured his hip in the warm-up and it was touch and go on whether he would actually make kick-off.
Yet he did and, as has become the norm for CR7, he was sat with the back-up men, face in neutral.
Not happy. But neutral, biding his time. Waiting, maybe, for January and a move away – something he wanted in the summer except that nobody was willing to take a chance on him, certainly not on £375,000-a-week wages.
And certainly not for a player who, let’s be brutally honest about it, was being talked about in the past tense, his legs supposedly gone, the zest that made him so fearsome now just the stuff of legend.
But Martial, having sent Antony through for the strike that cancelled out Alex Iwobi’s thundering opener, lasted only 28 minutes.
And as he flicked fists with him in front of the dug-outs, there was a smile on Ronaldo’s face, too.
That one, for sure, was about him thinking that this might just be his chance for at least once more “Siuuu!” celebration.
How many more there will be remains open to question – a bit like what that smiling addition to his normal display of triumph actually meant.
For his legs really aren’t what they were even if, clearly, his eye for goal is as diamond sharp as ever it was.
Chasing down defenders, doing the high press which Ten Hag demands as do all modern-day managers, really isn’t what he has ever been about and now, for all of his famous work ethic in the gym, it is beyond him physically.
What’s more Martial is beginning to look like a player again.
For all that they didn’t really matter, he got two in the 6-3 drubbing by Manchester City a week earlier plus one in a scrambling 3-2 midweek win over Omonia Nicosia in midweek.
His assist for Antony to become the first United player to score in each of his first three Prem games formed a perfectly-weighted pass after Bruno Fernandes had disposed Idrissa Gueye in the 15th minute.
Martial may be the future, while Marcus Rashford has been enjoying something of a renaissance under Ten Hag’s tutelage.
But this was Ronaldo saying that he is not quite yet in the past, either.
That magic moment came in a game in which both teams had clearly forgotten the old adage that possession is nine tenths of the law.
Casemiro, being Brazilian, probably hadn’t heard of it but he knows what it means now, for he gave up the ball under pressure from Amadou Onana amidst a febrile Goodison atmosphere.
The 30 year old – who cost £60million from one of Ronaldo’s old clubs Real Madrid – was making his full Prem debut after totting up 82 minutes over four appearances since his arrival.
But in the week when Ten Hag had been talking about wake-up calls he was fast asleep for the fifth-minute challenge by his £40m Nigerian international opponent.
Demarai Gray then dashed forward although David de Gea cannot have expected the resulting crack from Iwobi – who had scored 16 goals throughout his top-flight career but had never hit the net from outside the box.
Antony profited from a similar error as Martial made the most of Fernandes’ interception at the start of what would become a bitterly disappointing night for Everton boss Frank Lampard and a side that battered vainly for an equaliser in the dying moments.
Finally Casemiro, having headed a gilt-edged chance wide two minutes earlier, then robbed Iwobi to deliver the pass from which Ronaldo was able to tell the world that he’s not over the hill.
Or at least not quite yet.