The full-time whistle and Ronaldo’s late free-kick proved to be the difference, as his hat-trick landed Manchester United all three points.
Norwich kept coming and had chances to draw or even win the game.
But Ronaldo’s excellent performance in front of goal ensured that United made good ground in their race for the top four.
Starting lineup:
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): David De Gea;
Diogo Dalot, Victor Lindelof, Harry Maguire, Alex Telles;
Bruno Fernandes, Paul Pogba, Jesse Lingard;
Anthony Elanga, Cristiano Ronaldo, Jadon Sancho.
MANCHESTER UNITED SUBS: Dean Henderson, Eric Bailly, Phil Jones, Juan Mata, Marcus Rashford, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Nemanja Matic, Hannibal Mejbri, Alejandro Garnacho.
NORWICH CITY (4-2-3-1): Tim Krul;
Sam Byram, Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, Dimitrios Giannoulis;
Kenny McLean, Mathias Normann;
Kieran Dowell, Pierre Lees-Melou, Milot Rashica; Teemu Pukki.
NORWICH CITY SUBS: Angus Gunn, Max Aarons, Christoph Zimmermann, Lukas Rupp, Billy Gilmour, Przemyslaw Placheta, Christos Tzolis, Jacob Lungi Sorensen, Jon Rowe.
Goals:
The Reds break the deadlock. After being denied by Krul from long-range, Ronaldo opens the scoring. Elanga picks Gibson’s pocket in his box and tees Ronaldo, to slot into an empty net. 1-0 to the hosts in no time at all.
Ronaldo has two. The Portuguese gets away from Gibson and rises high at the front post, heading the ball down and beyond Krul into the back of the net!!! 2-0 to United, and both have come from their number seven.
Norwich pull one back! Giannoulis plays in Pukki, who’s got free of Lindelof, and crosses to Dowell at the back post, who heads in! So we’re back at 2-1, and it’s game on here!
Norwich is level. Dowell splits the Red Devils’ defence wide open and puts Pukki into the clear, and the striker beats De Gea to slot the ball in at the near post. What a response from Norwich, and we’re locked up at 2-2!!!
Ronaldo steps up and smashes the free-kick through the wall and into the bottom corner. Krul gets two hands to it but can only push it into the corner, and it’s 3-2 to Manchester United.
Ronaldo’s game by numbers vs Norwich:
Goals 3
Acc. passes 32/35 (91%)
Shot on target 5
Touches 43
Key pass 1
So, what’s next?
That victory sees United move from seventh to fifth, just three points behind Tottenham in fourth.
Another loss sees Norwich cut further adrift from the bottom, and the Canaries are now seven points from safety with just three games left to play.
United are in the ascendency, but Norwich will soon be heading in the other direction.
