Cristiano Ronaldo ends drought to spark Manchester United win over Brighton

After 588 minutes of football and 47 days, the great drought is over. Cristiano Ronaldo, the man who has scored more international goals than anyone else in the history of football, scored a goal, his first of 2022 and his first as a 37-year-old. In the process, a serial Champions League winner put Manchester United in the position to return them to the European elite, he and Bruno Fernandes sending them back up to fourth. Ronaldo had not gone seven games without a goal since 2009 and Brighton have never won at Old Trafford. The opening exchanges suggested history could be made but Albion ended up ruing a disastrous three-minute spell when Ronaldo struck and Lewis Dunk was sent off.

Ralf Rangnick asked Sascha Lense, his sports psychologist, to address United’s players about their problem of losing first-half leads. His words may not have had the desired effect as they limped in with parity at the break after lacking the initial incision they have shown of late. Their meaningful efforts before the interval amounted to a Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick that hit the wall and a lone good chance. Even that was courtesy of a defensive mistake as Jadon Sancho could have opened the scoring for the third consecutive match at Old Trafford.

Ronaldo has a habit of lingering offside and what looked like laziness brought a reward when Adam Webster misjudged a punt forward, releasing the striker. He played the ball into the path of the advancing Sancho with a cute backheel, but Robert Sánchez proved equal to the winger’s shot. Yet while Sancho was United’s sprightliest attacker at the start, most of those to make a positive early impression were in blue and white.

It was a sign of the ambition in Brighton’s approach that they had 59% of