It was Ronaldo’s 100th league start, and he celebrated by scoring the only goal of the game.
Manchester United managed to secure their 5th successive league victory; 4 out of the games came in a 1-0 victory. In fact, they could count themselves lucky to claim all 3 points… Birmingham gave them a stern test. It could have ended stalemate if Franck Queudrue didn’t make the mistake that allowed Ronaldo to score his first league goal of the campaign in 51st minute.
In fact it was Birmingham that controlled the match, up until Ronaldo’s goal; Gary McSheffrey and Olivier Kapo had been superb in running the match. However, Birmingham seemed to be facing the same problem with United at the moment… lacking the cutting edge to convert chances into goals.
United’s defence had been shaggy for the first 45 minutes; Birmingham could have scored twice if their strikers could have just a bit more composure… but then, perhaps luck was on United’s side.
Ronaldo’s goal came from a long ball from Rio Ferdinand. Queudrue could have dealt with it easily, but somehow misjudge the whole situation, and allowed Ronaldo to take the ball and scored.
The remainder of the game was rather boring, as both sides didn’t have much shot on goals.