Rio Ferdinand started choking Cristiano Ronaldo after amazing Man Utd goal vs Porto

Fresh footage clearly shows Ronaldo smashing phone from fan's hand

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It’s now 13 years to the day since Cristiano Ronaldo’s amazing goal for Manchester United against Porto. So, with that being the case, Express Sport will now take a look at that moment. Rio Ferdinand’s reaction, in particular, stands out as the Red Devils battled their way to the semi-finals of the Champions League that year.

In 2009, Manchester United locked horns with Porto in a crunch match in Portugal.

Their Champions League tie was hanging in the balance, with the first leg ending in a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.

United were favourites to go through, even if their form had started to tail off under Sir Alex Ferguson towards the end of the season.

And they did exactly that, with Ronaldo’s outstanding strike from 40 yards the difference.

Over his career, the 37-year-old has scored many amazing goals. But this effort, on this stage, is one of his finest.

It was enough for United to go through, though they also had to rely on a goalkeeping masterclass from Edwin van der Sar.

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After Ronaldo’s goal, Ferdinand started to choke Ronaldo in the celebrations – with images clearly showing his hand around his team-mate’s throat.

And when asked about that incident on BT Sport last year, Ferdinand explained his bizarre actions by saying: “Because I wanted him to stay.”

He then added: “I was begging him, like all the other players at the time, ‘please stay’. This was the third league title on the bounce, we wanted to break the records and stuff.

“And I’m saying, ‘that’s why you’re the best, that’s why you’ve got to stay here.'”

Ferdinand also revealed he’d tried to stop Ronaldo from shooting.

“I’m still telling him now, ‘no!’, not to shoot,” said the pundit.

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“He did things in games that would make you scratch your hair, you’d say, ‘How?’.

“40 yards out, 64.2 miles an hour.

“When the ball comes into him here, he gets his head down. At that moment, I’ll never forget it, I tell my kids about this all the time.

“I was screaming here, ‘No! No! No!

“He doesn’t even look up and look for anybody, he just gets the ball and straight away, all he’s thinking about doing is shooting.”

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Ronaldo’s goal came a couple of years after Sir Alex Ferguson had fumed at him for his performance in an away match against Benfica.

Booed on by fans, the forward appeared to let that occasion get the better of him.

And Ferdinand said: “The manager caned him at half-time. Almost crying he was.”

“He got here, maturity was top notch, scored that goal and silenced a lot of people.”

Another United legend, Ryan Giggs, has previously recalled the goal.

And he admitted that it was one of the few examples over his career when he was well and truly stunned but what he’d seen.

“There was that goal he scored against Porto, he was about 40 yards out. It was an unbelievable, unbelievable goal,” he said.

“To go back to Portugal against one of his rivals when he was growing up, there have been three or four times on a pitch where I have gone ‘Wow’ and that was one of them.”

United didn’t end up winning the Champions League that year, however.

Barcelona beat them to the trophy, winning 2-0 in Rome courtesy of goals from Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi with Ronaldo departing for Real Madrid shortly afterwards. 

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