Iconic Performances: When R9 destroyed Man United and got clapped off at Old Trafford

The UEFA Champions League has delivered some special nights throughout the course of its illustrious history, a stage in which the world’s finest footballers exhibit their extraordinary talents.
There is something so utterly alluring about watching the titans of European football compete, stellar names across the continent drawn together under the bright lights of the sport’s most iconic stadia.
The latest piece in our Iconic Performances series revisits a star-studded quarter-final tie from the 2002/03 season, a last eight meeting between England’s dominant force of the past decade in Manchester United and the Galactico side of Real Madrid who arrived at Old Trafford as the reigning European champions.
The protagonist of the tale" The Brazilian brilliance of a certain Ronaldo Nazario.

 
Real Madrid’s recruitment drive of the early 2000s remains one of the most fascinating transfer strategies the game has ever seen, the Spanish giants bidding to assemble a side packed with the most glamorous names in world football.
Between the turn of the new millennium and the summer of 2004, the club signed no fewer than four Ballon d’Or winners, with arguably the sport’s most recognisable face in David Beckham also arriving at the Bernabeu for good measure.

{
"AmpBind": true,
"ISOCountryGroups": {
"eea": ["preset-eea", "unknown"],
"usca": ["preset-us-ca"] }
}

{
"consentInstanceId": "SourcePoint",
"consentRequired": false,
"geoOverride": {
"eea": {
"consentRequired": "remote",
"checkConsentHref": "https://cmpv2.thefootballfaithful.com/wrapper/tcfv2/v1/amp",
"promptUISrc": "https://cmpv2.thefootballfaithful.com/amp/index.html"authId=CLIENT_ID",
"postPromptUI": "consent-ui",
"clientConfig": {
"accountId": 1503,
"mmsDomain": "https://cmpv2.thefootballfaithful.com",
"propertyHref": "https://thefootballfaithful.amp",
"propertyId": 13020,
"privacyManagerId": 352790,
"isTCFV2": true,
"pmTab": "purposes",
"stageCampaign": false
}
},
"usca":{
"consentRequired": "remote",
"checkConsentHref":"https://cmpv2.thefootballfaithful.com/ccpa/consent/amp",
"promptUISrc": "https:...