Cristiano Ronaldo has been spotted arriving at the team hotel with the rest of his Manchester United teammates as they gear up for the visit of Atletico Madrid on Tuesday night.
The tie is evenly posed after a cagey first-leg at the Wanda Metropolitano that ended 1-1 after Joao Felix's fantastic header was cancelled by a late equaliser from United youngster Anthony Elanga. The iconic United number seven goes into the game off the back of his first hat-trick of his second spell at Old Trafford against top-four rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday evening which ensured the Red Devils toppled Antonio Conte's side 3-2.
Some have questioned whether Ronaldo will be able to lead the line twice in three days given his age, but interim boss Ralf Rangnick has insisted he has very little concern over the fitness and ability of his talismanic forward.
"I'm not worried he has not been able to recover," Rangnick said ahead of the game on Monday.
"So far, he's always been a person that looks quite a lot after himself, his body, and he knows exactly what to do.
"So I'm not worried about that. If he can score another three goals, we'll see. His overall performance was good and hopefully we get this from him tomorrow.
"There was a lot of discussion before the Tottenham game about Cristiano and he showed what kind of professional and player he is, what kind of level he can still play at.
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"With performances like the one he showed, he's still a very important player for this team and tomorrow it will be good for us if he has a similar performance to the one against Tottenham.
"It's not just about Cristiano though, it's about the whole team. It's what we shouldn't do and that is what we spoke about pre-match, ahead of tomorrow's game.
"We were the team on Saturday that wanted to win that game, our supporters played a vital role and realised how much we wanted to win that game, and tomorrow will be similar."
Though there has been some speculation over the strength of Rangnick's relationship with Ronaldo, particularly after the Manchester derby, but United's interim manager is clearly strongly considering starting the forward from the off against Simeone's men. The 37-year-old will be relishing the prospect of taking on Diego Simeone's side once again after enjoying such success against them during both his Real Madrid and Juventus days.
His finest hour against the La Liga titans arguably came while donning the famous black and white of Juventus in the Champions League during the 2018/19 season when Ronaldo helped overturn a 2-0 deficit by notching a stunning hat-trick in the second-leg. A similar display at Old Trafford tonight would be incredibly welcome as United look to spring a shock and topple Atletico Madrid in the round of 16 clash.
