It was exactly 81 minutes on the clock when Cristiano Ronaldo completed his hat-trick and Old Trafford seemed to have been transported to the halcyon days of 2008 with the crowd screaming "Viva Ronaldo."
Pirouetting midair and landing with a swirl of hands were missing though. A slide and a pile up with the red shirts were the order of the night. His last act of the night was a towering header to restore the edge against Tottenham Hotspur that eventually secured a win for Manchester United in the Premier League and unlocked the psychological floodgates to euphoria at the Old Trafford, which was recently ransacked by Pep Guardiola's crosstown visitors.
Last time Old Trafford went into a frenzied crescendo over a Ronaldo hattrick was in 2008.
One cannot be sure how far Ronaldo's extra-terrestrial effort would go in Manchester United's search for a top-four finish in the league but the impact of his Saturday night's colossal performance will linger for long.
Off for a brief respite from the woeful period that United as a club are going through, Ronaldo missed the Manchester derby and the inevitable suffering. He was recuperating from a hip flexor injury. So insipid were United last Sunday without him that it felt they were lambs for the slaughter. A reaction was imperative and a fit-again Ronaldo offered it in tremendous measure, first with a thunderous strike from some 20-yards out, following a Fred flick to give United the lead.
The next was the simplest of the three as Jadon Sancho pulled away from the retreating Spurs defenders to set the Portuguese up for a simple finish.
On both occasions, Ronaldo's defensive mates let him down, as has been the norm lately. Alex Telles forgot to keep his flailing hand away from Dejan Kulusevski's cross and Harry Kane buried the resultant penalty.
Captain Harry 'disaster' Maguire did one better by sticking an outstretched leg to score past his own goalkeeper David de Gea. The script was all too familiar in the post-Ferguson era. Not to be winded down by the desperate and disturbing mediocrity around him, Ronaldo gave the slip to his marker and his booming header off a Telles corner kick gave the story an O-Henry like ending. It was his 807th goal for club and country, an all-time record, in his tremendous journey.
Few saw the hat-trick, 59th of his career, coming but for Ronaldo himself. Such self-belief and desire to overcome odds have been the driving force behind the 37-year old behemoth, who has this unique ability to flourish in diverse sporting climates.
A return to Old Trafford is not just for slowly walking into the sunset. Ronaldo has more rescue acts to perform, often single-handedly.
