Cristiano Ronaldo's stunning strike against FC Porto has set up a Champions League semi-final against Arsenal - and his team-mates…

Cristiano Ronaldo's stunning strike against FC Porto has set up a Champions League semi-final against Arsenal - and his team-mates were queueing up to lavish praise on the Portuguese winger.

Ronny's wonder-goal after just six minutes secured a 1-0 win (and 3-2 success over the two legs). UEFA measured his thunderbolt effort at 39.6 yards from goal, travelling at a speed of 65mph. For any budding young footballer, that's the perfect way to strike a long-range shot.

"When Anderson gave me the ball, I was thinking I'd turn and shoot," explained Ronny. "This is what I tried to do and I scored a fantastic goal. It is one of my favourites."

"It was an unbelievable strike," Michael Carrick admitted. "Just when we needed that spark and a bit of brilliance, Ronny did it again."

Wayne Rooney added: "It was a wonderful goal from Cristiano to win us the game. It was brilliant and on such a big night for him too."

Defender John O'Shea also said: "The strike was sublime. He’s well capable of that and he nearly stuck another one in the bottom corner with a couple of minutes to go."

Although Porto were disappointed to go out, at least they could accept that they went out to a goal worthy of winning any football match. "We can be proud. We lost to the best team in the world, by a goal scored by the best player in the world," said assistant coach Jose Gomes.

Sir Alex Ferguson described as one of the best he's ever seen, saying: "I’ll need to go into my memory bank to recall a better European Cup goal than that one. That was fantastic, a great, great strike. We wanted to show our intent but to get that sort of start, well, nobody can expect that sort of goal."

Ronny's wonderstrike wins it

16TH APR 2009

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