Rio Ferdinand says Brazilian Ronaldo’s famous hat-trick v Man Utd would have been stopped by one legendary teammate

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Brazil legend Ronaldo is one of the rare opposition players to receive a standing ovation at Old Trafford from the home support.

It was a performance which lives long in the memory still to this day, 20 years on. Ronaldo’s hat-trick for Real Madrid knocked Manchester United out of the Champions League, despite the best efforts of David Beckham, who won 4-3 on the night, yet lost 6-5 on aggregate.

United fans were devastated to lose the tie, yet left the match feeling the team had simply fallen victim to one of the world’s best ever strikers, enjoying one of the best nights of his club career.

Former United star Rio Ferdinand has been reminiscing about the match, and feels one player could have changed the outcome.

Rio Ferdinand on Ronaldo

Ronaldo struck all three of Real Madrid’s goals at Old Trafford, one in the first half and two in the second. They were among the 30 goals he scored that season, as part of a career renaissance after recovering from injury hell at Inter Milan to lead Brazil to World Cup success in 2002.

Rio Ferdinand was part of the Manchester United defence, and while he admits he was powerless to stop Ronaldo on the night, he believes a change of goalkeeper could have kept the score down.

Speaking to MUTV, Ferdinand believes two of Ronaldo’s shots were saveable, even though Fabian Barthez could not get near them.

He said: “Two of his goals, another goalkeeper saves it. Edwin [van der Sar] saves both of them.

“There’s two goals in that game [that could be saved] I think, but you still can’t discredit Ronaldo. He was a ridiculous footballer.”

If United had prevented two of Ronaldo’s goals, the team would have won 5-4 on aggregate and gone through to a semi-final against Juventus, with a place in the final at Old Trafford on the line, which was eventually won by AC Milan.

Ferdinand admitted he was a fan of Ronaldo, but was unable to get his shirt after the game, joking: “No, I didn’t. I couldn’t get close enough!”

Edwin van der Sar was at Fulham at the time

Manchester United struggled to replace Peter Schmeichel, who won the Treble in 1999. Many goalkeepers tried, from Mark Bosnich, to Massimo Taibi, to Fabian Barthez, to Tim Howard and Roy Carroll.

Edwin van der Sar was a Fulham player when Manchester United took on Real Madrid in 2003, eventually joining the Red Devils in 2005.

Three years later he was a Champions League winner, alongside Rio Ferdinand.

Even Sir Alex Ferguson will probably reflect that he should have signed Van der Sar earlier, and we can only wonder if he would have been able to stop an inspired Ronaldo in 2003, or whether the Brazilian would have gone the extra mile to make sure he beat the Dutchman too.