Cristiano Ronaldo’s Champions League return with Manchester ended in a shock defeat after a horrendous injury-time error by substitute Jesse Lingard gifted Young Boys victory in Switzerland.
Ronaldo was watching on from the bench as the man who replaced him in the 72nd minute inexplicably presented the ball to Theoson Siebatcheu with a tame back-pass deep into added time.
The Young Boys striker poked the ball beyond David de Gea to put the home team 2-1 in front and send the crowd at the Wankdorf Stadium into ecstasy.
The goal sealed a comeback for Young Boys after Ronaldo had put the visitors 1-0 up on 13 minutes when he turned in a pinpoint assist from Bruno Fernandes.
The goal was Ronaldo’s 135th in the competition on what was a record-equaling 177th Champions League appearance.
But the game turned on its head when United full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka was sent off in the 35th minute for a clumsy tackle on Young Boys’ Christopher Martins.
An uninspiring United held on until the 66-minute mark, when Moumi Ngamaleu toe-poked the ball home at the near post after United had blocked a shot.
Then came Lingard’s calamity – as fans online reaction with a mixture of horror and humor, depending on their allegiances.
Some accounts picked up on the strange coincidence that Ronaldo had also been on the end of a 2-1 Champions League group stage defeat to Young Boys in Swiss capital Bern during his first season at Juventus back in 2018.
United will have to dust themselves off for the Premier League visit to West Ham on Sunday - ironically the club where Lingard shone on loan last season.
Their next Champions League game is at home to Villarreal on September 29, as they will aim for revenge against the team who beat them in the Europa League final back in May.
After his dream two-goal 'second debut' at Old Trafford on Saturday, Ronaldo perhaps now realizes the full scale of the task needed to drag United back to something approaching the level they were at when he left for Real Madrid back in 2009.
