Erik ten Hag Praises Cristiano Ronaldo's For His 'Never Giving Up' Attitude Following His Return To Man United Squad.

 Manchester United's manager Erik ten Hag has praised Cristiano Ronaldo after he made a goal-scoring return to the first team. 

Ronaldo returned to training on Tuesday after he held positive talks with Ten Hag about his rash decision and accepted his wrongdoing after sitting out Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Chelsea.

He had been left out of the squad as part of the punishment for refusing to come on as a substitute against Tottenham last week.

Ten Hag wanted to know if Ronaldo was committed to his project before welcoming him back, but received enough assurances to bring him back into the group earlier this week.

The 37-year-old was further included into the starting line-up on Thursday evening, and in what seem to be a very frustrating night for the five-time Ballon d'Or winner, he was later rewarded scoring the last goal in the 3-0 win over Moldovan minnows Sheriff Tiraspol in the Europa League.

Man United booked their place in the knockout stage with a game to spare as Diogo Dalot, Marcus Rashford had earlier scored the first and second goal in the 44th and 65th minute respectively before Ronaldo found the net in the 81st minute.

It was Ronaldo's 701 career club goals, as he sent a message to Old Trafford fans after his scoring return, and praised his teammates in a series of posts on Instagram.

Manager Erik ten Hag also praised Ronaldo on his return to the team, for his ‘never giving up’, that has seen him become one of football’s all-time greats, as he hinted that the pair have put their falling out behind them.

Ten Hag was impressed with the way the Portuguese veteran responded to being dropped.

When asked if he was impressed with the forward's perseverance to get a goal having missed a number of chances, the United manager replied: "Yes, what you said, he kept going, the team kept going to put him in the right position.

"He kept going to put himself in the right position. He didn't give up. That's his whole career. That's why he's so good and he got the reward for it."

The victory means United had set a showdown battle with table toppers Real Sociedad in the last game next week.

The winner of that game will secure their place at the top of Group E and sail straight through to the last-16 of the tournament, whereas the loser will then face a knockout play-off against one of the Champions League dropouts with Barcelona, Sevilla, Ajax, Juventus and Atletico Madrid among the huge names potentially on offer.