Ralf Rangnick insists Cristiano Ronaldo will be ready for Atletico Madrid test

Ralf Rangnick is confident Cristiano Ronaldo can help fire Manchester United into the Champions League quarter-finals just 72 hours after the veteran’s superb hat-trick against Tottenham.

All eyes will be on Old Trafford as Atletico Madrid come to town on Tuesday, when the round-of-16 encounter will resume at 1-1 thanks to Anthony Elanga’s late goal for the fortunate Red Devils in Spain.

United are attempting to reach the Champions League last eight for just the third time since the retirement of Sir Alex Ferguson, who was in the stands on Saturday as Ronaldo scored his first Premier League hat-trick since 2008.

The 37-year-old’s treble sealed a crucial 3-2 victory against top-four rivals Spurs and Rangnick has dismissed any suggestion that the Portugese would be unable to handle the swift turnaround.

“Well, I’m not worried that he has not been able to recover,” the interim United manager said.

“So far he’s always been a person who looks quite a lot after himself, his body and he exactly knows what to do, so I’m not worried about that.

“If he can score another three goals, we will see. I mean, it’s not so easy to score three goals against this team at all.

“I think his overall performance was just good, if not even very good and this is obviously what we hope to get from him again tomorrow night.

“But it’s not just about Cristiano, it’s about the whole team.”

Whilst that is true, Ronaldo is synonymous with the Champions League and stepping up on the biggest occasions – plus he has proven the scourge of Atleti on a number of occasions down the years.

His display against Spurs will have surely struck fear into all connected to Diego Simeone’s side, having bounced back from the hip flexor issue that ruled him out of the