CRISTIANO Ronaldo returned in red to haunt former club Sporting Lisbon and ensure Manchester United made a winning start to their latest Champions League quest.

Ronaldo spent seven years wearing Sporting green before he left for Old Trafford in 2003 with a £12.2m price tag and became a megastar.

But the brilliant Portugal winger had warned there would be no old pals act at the Jose Alvalade Stadium, the ground on which he first came to Sir Alex Ferguson's attention in a friendly meeting between the teams four years ago.

And Ronaldo matched his words with deeds as he arrived with perfect timing to finish off Wes Brown's low cross and provide the Red Devils with only their third Champions League away win in 15 encounters.

Having refused to state whether he would celebrate any goal, Ronaldo restricted himself to a low, double-fisted salute before an almost apologetic bow to the home supporters, who offered the winger a standing ovation when he was replaced by Carlos Tevez four minutes from time.

His efforts ensured United headed home with three precious points - but Edwin van der Sar had equal claim to hero status among the visiting faithful, the veteran Dutchman producing two outstanding saves to deny Liedson and Tonel.

At the start of a European campaign which will contain the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash, a tragedy which cost eight fine players their lives and affected the aspirations of not just United but England as well for years afterwards, there has been plenty of talk of providing a fitting on-field tribute to Sir Matt Busby's trail-blazers.

Unfortunately, the opening 45 minutes did not exactly measure up to the task.

With an arduous journey to Kiev next month and an unwanted trip to Italy for the AS Roma re-match, this probably represented United's best chance of an away win in Group F but they failed to impose themselves as Sir Alex Ferguson would have wished.

Not even the return of Wayne Rooney for the first time since he fractured a foot in the opening-day Barclays Premier League draw with Reading could spark the Red Devils into life.

Rooney was the architect of United's one decent chance during the opening period when he found Nani with an excellent far post cross.

Had the teenager taken an instant decision either to shoot or find Ronaldo with a lay-off, the visitors may have profited. Instead, the Portugal winger dallied and Anderson Polga moved in to block.

Other than that, the goalmouth action, such as it was, involved Van der Sar.

It was not as if Rio Ferdinand and the formidable Nemanja Vidic were extended to any great degree, just that Van der Sar found himself being peppered by a series of long-range shots which could easily have gone in with one unfortunate deflection.

Liedson, Marat Izmailov and Leandro Romagnoli all tried their luck at various times but thankfully Van der Sar was in the correct position on each occasion.

The one time when Van der Sar was seriously threatened came just before the half-hour when Liedson's curling shot was heading for the top corner.

Even at 36 and with doubts persisting over whether the veteran Dutchman will extend his career beyond the end of the season, Van der Sar had enough spring to push Liedson's well-struck effort wide.

The value of Van der Sar's save was fully realised just past the hour when United took the lead as Ronaldo finished off the best move of the match.

Rooney started it, darting to the left wing to pick up possession which Nani felt entitled to. In an instant, the ball was transferred from one side of the pitch to the other, with Ronaldo, Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes all involved.

Wes Brown's cross fell right into the danger zone and with Sporting's defenders at full stretch for the first time in the entire game, up popped Ronaldo in acres of space to inflict maximum damage on his old club