[misha]

Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo has been lavished with the highest praise following his display in the demolition of Roma, with team-mate Patrice Evra claiming the Portuguese can be "better than Pele or Maradona".

Ronaldo scored twice in the amazing 7-1 destruction of Roma at Old Trafford as he put in yet another scintillating performance to which the Italians rarely had an answer.

The 22-year-old is set to sweep the board in the player-of-the-year polls and Evra, who also found the back of the net on Tuesday, believes he can go on to become one of the game's all-time greats.

"Cristiano can do the same job as Pele or [Diego] Maradona or [George] Best," Evra said. "He can be like them. The great thing about him, he does not do it just in training, he does it on the pitch. And he does not do it for himself, he does it for the team, for the fans and for the winning of the game."

Ronaldo's sparkling form has helped United into the semi-finals of both the FA Cup and the Champions League, and the Red Devils are still on course for an unprecedented second treble as they stand three points clear at the top of the Premiership.

But Evra refuses to get carried away with thoughts of such success and remains focused on the job in hand.

The France international said: "If we win nothing, people will say, 'well, United played good football', but to me that is not enough. It we win nothing it will have been a bad season. We must win one trophy or two. Three would be unbelievable, but anything is possible."

"When everything is going well is when things can become dangerous," Evra told L'Equipe. "The end of the season can be brilliant or like a bad dream for us. In football only trophies count.

"I've already experienced [a title run-in like this] with Monaco in 2004. We had a 10-point lead on Lyon in January and we qualified for the final of the Champions League. By the end, we had won nothing. I know at what point things go wrong. I don't want to re-live that."

Meanwhile, the rumours linking Ronaldo to a move away from Old Trafford look set to continue, with the Guardian reporting that Real Madrid are set to table a £54 million offer to lure him to the Spanish capital.

The newspaper reported that 'Real Madrid have stepped up their attempt to sign [Ronaldo] by meeting his agent and agreeing a course of action that directors at the Bernabeu believe will end with the Portugal winger becoming their latest galáctico'.

Ronaldo has recently reiterated his desire to remain at United, but has not ruled out the possibility of playing in Spain at some stage of his career.

eurosport