Ronaldo Reclaims His Spot As Penalty King

Cristiano Ronaldo rediscovered his confidence from the penalty spot in the FA Cup fourth round against Tottenham and insisted he had no problem in stepping up to take the kick

Last month the Portuguese winger suffered the ignominy of missing a penalty in Man United's 2-1 victory over West Ham but when he was asked by MUTV if this was playing on his mind when he put the ball on the spot in his side's 3-1 win over Spurs he replied: "To be honest, no."

"Sometimes you score, sometimes you miss," he continued, philosophically. "I wasn't thinking about West Ham - that's in the past. I needed to think about the present.

"My confidence is always positive. I took a good penalty and I scored. I'm very happy, my colleagues are happy... everyone is happy."

The player did, however, admit that his side didn't have it all their own way against an organised and threatening Tottenham.

"The game was very difficult," added Ronaldo, who scored two goals in an otherwise average performance by his standards.

"We knew before the game it would be tough because Spurs are a good team and they were coming to Old Trafford with confidence after beating Arsenal in their last match.

"But I think we played better (than Spurs) and we deserved to win."

Ronaldo's two strikes took his tally of goals for the season to 25, two more than his total for the whole of the last campaign.

"I'm having a great season and I need to carry it on. But the most important thing is the team is playing very well, we are top of the league and in the next round of the FA Cup," he concluded.