Source: Telegraph
Federico Macheda gives belief says Manchester United's Sir Alex Ferguson
The Italian teenager swivelled and shot past Brad Friedel deep into injury time to give the champions three precious points, send them back to the top of the Premier League and put an end to their run of two successive defeats.
Ferguson believes that Macheda's goal will prove the turning point of a campaign which was threatening to falter after consecutive losses to Liverpool and Fulham and is confident his side can continue their resurgence tomorrow night despite facing the Portuguese champions
without injured defender Rio Ferdinand.
He said: "It was one of those incredible moments. It's galvanised the whole club.
"We'd looked fragile in defence but we'd kept playing our football and we played some good stuff, created some good chances.
"But there was always that fragility at the back and we looked vulnerable to losing the game. 2-1 is a time for risk as it always is and the young lad did very well after Cristiano Ronaldo had equalised. Once that goal went in I just felt the game was turning.
"Now for tomorrow night we've got a lot going for us. European nights at Manchester United, at Old Trafford, are a special place and the players respond to that. When you see our home record over recent years, it's fantastic."
Ferguson's confidence will no doubt be bolstered by the return from suspension of Wayne Rooney, Paul Scholes and Nemanja Vidic, likely to partner Jonny Evans in defence after the Scot admitted Ferdinand was unlikely to recover from the back injury which kept him out of yesterday's game.
He said: "I don't think any of the injured players will be back but we do have the ones coming back from suspension, which is good.
"I've got some good options and having Rooney and Scholes back will give us some more penetration. I'll have to assess Ryan Giggs because it's a big ask to ask someone to play twice in 48 hours at the kind of level we play."
