Cristiano Ronaldo was the only reason Manchester United defeated Tottenham according to Alan Shearer, who stated "God only knows" where the Red Devils would be without the Portugal superstar.
Ronaldo struck the 49th hat-trick of his sensational club career to help see off Antonio Conte's side 3-2 at Old Trafford, moving United into the Premier League's top four ahead of Arsenal's clash with Leicester City on Sunday.
With Harry Kane's penalty and a Harry Maguire own goal twice pegging United back in an absorbing contest, Ronaldo also became the first player to give United the lead three times within a single Premier League clash.
Writing for BBC Sport, Shearer – the Premier League's all-time leading goalscorer – was effusive in his praise for the 37-year-old, labelling his performance "staggering".
"There are some people who think Cristiano Ronaldo is a problem for Manchester United," wrote the Newcastle United great. "But God knows where they would be without him.
"I said a few weeks ago that, if it wasn't for Ronaldo, United would be far worse off than they are, and Saturday's game against Tottenham summed up why in a nutshell.
"He was quite simply the only reason they beat Spurs. His hat-trick was phenomenal and his overall performance was so good, it was staggering.
"This was some response to his critics and all three of his goals were special in their own way. His third goal was my favourite, though. Ronaldo had to get every part of it right, and he did.
"From the way he reads the flight of the cross to the way he attacks it and times his jump, then meets the ball with accuracy and power, it was all absolutely perfect. A textbook header."
Shearer was not, however, impressed with United's overall performance, claiming Ronaldo "got them over the line" after a "terrible" defensive display, and cannot be blamed for their below-par season.
"United have still got a heck of a lot of work to do to get a top-four finish from here, but if they do miss out then there is no way on earth you can pin the blame on Ronaldo," he added.
"They would not be in a position to challenge for the Champions League places if it wasn't for him, so I don't buy that as the reason their results have not always been good enough.
"Their big problem is defensively - they are terrible at times, and we saw that again against Tottenham despite the end result this time.
"Yes, United deserve some credit for the way they responded to what happened to them in the derby last weekend [a 4-1 loss at Manchester City] and this was a huge result for them, but they had no control of the game whatsoever and it was Ronaldo's brilliance that got them over the line."
Ronaldo, who has 12 Premier League goals this term, has now scored in each of his last seven appearances against Tottenham in all competitions, and has netted more career goals against Spurs than he has against any other English side (14).
Lionel Messi and Neymar were booed by some Paris Saint-Germain fans during the first half of Sunday's Ligue 1 match with Bordeaux.
Supporters made their displeasure clear towards the star duo following the Champions League exit to Real Madrid this week.
Neymar set up Kylian Mbappe to score at the Santiago Bernabeu and give PSG a 2-0 aggregate lead, but a collapse during the final half-hour saw Madrid triumph 3-1 in the last-16 second leg and 3-2 in the tie thanks to Karim Benzema's hat-trick.
Neither Messi nor Neymar was able to inspire PSG to a comeback as Mauricio Pochettino's side failed once more in their quest to win Europe's biggest prize.
The defeat prompted further speculation over the future of Mbappe and, according to some reports in Spain, the France star has now signed an agreement to join Madrid on a free transfer at the end of the season.
However, Mbappe's early touches against Bordeaux were generally met with cheers from the home fans and it was his strike that gave them the lead 24 minutes in after Messi found Georginio Wijnaldum.
Manchester United are not a stronger team without Cristiano Ronaldo and cannot think about discarding the forward, according to Rio Ferdinand.
Ronaldo brought an emphatic end to a barren run in front of goal with a hat-trick in Saturday's 3-2 Premier League win over Tottenham at Old Trafford.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner had just one goal and no assists in his previous 10 games for United in all competitions prior to his impressive treble.
That led to questions whether the Red Devils would be better off without Ronaldo in their side, with the Portugal international having been left out at times by Ralf Rangnick.
But after bagging his 49th hat-trick at club level, including at least one in 13 consecutive seasons, Ferdinand rejected claims his former team-mate weakens United in any way.
"Without Cristiano Ronaldo, Man United would not still be in the Champions League," Ferdinand told The Mirror.
"Are United a stronger team without him? I cannot agree with that at all. If he is not playing with Man United then they would have gone out in the group stage.
"A player with his ability and his talent, who is as decisive as he is, who has shown it over the years and this season that he can make the difference.
"Man United are not a team who are in the position to think, 'OK, we are too good to have someone like that in our team'."
Ronaldo has now found the net 18 times in 31 games since returning to Old Trafford from Juventus in August – double that of any other United player.
That includes 12 goals in the Premier League, making the 37-year-old the competition's joint-second highest scorer this term, albeit 12 goals behind runaway leader Mohamed Salah.
Commenting on Ronaldo's display against Tottenham, Rangnick said it was the best performance he has seen from the ex-Real Madrid player during his time in interim charge.
"At least since I arrived, his best performance," Rangnick said. "Not only because he scored three goals, two brilliant goals... he was also energetically good.
"He was part of the whole team when we had to defend, and we had to defend a lot. Top performance by him, but also by the rest of the team."
Klay Thompson never doubted himself after inspiring the Golden State Warriors to a 122-109 win over the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
Thompson scored a season-high 38 points – his highest tally in a game since March 2019 – as the Warriors extended their winning run to three matches at Chase Center.
The five-time NBA All-Star landed eight three-pointers, claimed six rebounds and provided five assists in a brilliant performance.
Six of Thompson's field goals came in the second quarter, which is the most he has made in a quarter for over three years.
The three-time NBA champion says he always knew he was capable of conjuring up such inspiring displays, despite what others may have thought.
He said: "Everybody makes a big deal about my shooting, man. I mean, I'm not happy with how I was shooting but I know these nights are within me.
"I just know. I've done too many great things that players haven't done before to doubt myself."
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was delighted to see Thompson putting on a show once again.
He said: "I'm sure it's a relief. He's so hard on himself and wants so badly to succeed.
"I thought he just let the game come to him early. He didn't hunt shots. Over the past few games, he's been taking tough ones early, which has kept him from getting into a rhythm.
"Tonight, it felt like he was taking better shots early. ... You know Klay, once a couple go in, the tougher ones get a lot easier for him."
Golden State are third in the Western Conference at 46-22 after getting the better of the defending champions, who are second in the Eastern Conference on 42-26.
An emotional Naomi Osaka says being targeted by a heckling spectator during her loss to Veronika Kudermetova reminded of abuse the Williams sisters were subjected to at the Indian Wells Open.
Osaka was reduced to tears as she crashed out with a 6-0 6-4 third-round defeat to 21st seed Veronika Kudermetova at Indian Wells on Saturday.
A member of the crowd could be heard shouting "Naomi, you suck" after the four-time grand slam champion had been broken in the first game of the match.
Osaka approached the chair umpire to report the incident and held further discussions with the court supervisor after being insulted again.
Serena and Venus Williams were subjected to verbal abuse at the prestigious tournament in the Californian desert back in 2001.
The legendary siblings' father, Richard Williams, claimed he had been racially abused at Indian Wells, while Venus Williams said she "heard whatever he heard".
Former world number one Osaka said while trying to hold back the tears after her exit: "I've been heckled before and it didn't really bother me.
"But being heckled here... I've watched videos of Venus and Serena get heckled here and if you've never watched it, you should watch it.
"I don't know why, but it went into my head and got replayed a lot. I just want to say thank you and congratulations [to Kudermetova]."
Serena Williams boycotted the competition for 14 years before making her Indian Wells return in 2015.
Stefanos Tsitsipas survived a big scare in his "crazy battle" with Jack Sock to reach the third round of the Indian Wells Masters.
The fifth seed was taken all the way to a third-set tie-break by Sock, which he trailed 5-3 before recovering to claim a 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 7-6 (7-5) victory in a gripping contest.
Sock, ranked 140 places below his opponent, put his strong forehand to good use to hold in a first set that went the distance but was undone by some unforced errors.
After responding brilliantly by taking the second set, after once again holding his serve, the American looked to be heading for defeat when 40-0 down at 5-6 in the third set.
However, he dug deep to force another tie-break and was within two points of a big victory, only for two more unforced errors to cost him a place in the last 32.
"It was a crazy battle; we both left everything out there," Tsitsipas said. "Jack played incredibly well at times but I was able to bring out the best in my game at the end.
"I proved I could play aggressive tennis and stay calm at the same time."
Tsitsipas will now face another home hopeful in Jenson Brooksby, who saw off Karen Khachanov 6-0 6-3 earlier in the day.
Jannik Sinner battled to a 6-3 6-3 win over Laslo Djere elsewhere in Saturday's action, while Denis Shapovalov and defending champion Cameron Norrie also advanced.
Fabio Fognini withdrew from his meeting with Nikoloz Basilashvili, who now awaits Norrie in the next round.
Naomi Osaka was brought to tears by a heckling spectator during her Indian Wells Open match with Veronika Kudermetova before going on to lose 6-0 6-4.
The incident happened after Osaka had been broken by Kudermetova in the first game, with someone in attendance reported to have yelled "Naomi, you suck".
Four-time grand slam winner Osaka, competing in her first tournament since January's shock early Australian Open exit, appeared to ask the chair umpire to take action.
Osaka initially put that unneeded distraction behind her by taking the next point, but she wasted two break opportunities and Kudermetova successfully held to move 2-0 ahead.
The 24-year-old was in tears as she prepared to serve her next game and held further discussions with the court supervisor after going 3-0 down.
She could not recover and, after losing the first set 6-0, Osaka suffered the only break of serve in the seventh game of the second set to lose the contest fairly resoundingly.
Kudermetova will now face Marie Bouzkova for a place in the last 16 after the Czech recovered to see off home hopeful Jessica Pegula 5-7 6-2 6-0.
Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka also made it through on Saturday with a 6-3 7-5 victory over lucky loser Astra Sharma, setting up a meeting with Elena Rybakina.
Leyla Fernandez saved four match points against Amanda Anisimova in a dramatic match that came to an end when the American retired through illness.
After losing the opener 6-2, Fernandez took the second set to a tie-break but felt unable to continue. Anisimova will meet Shelby Rogers in a rematch of last year's last-16 encounter.
A barnstorming first half from the Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson set up a decisive 122-109 home victory against the reigning champions Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday.
Thompson started on fire, scoring 21 points (8-12 from the field, 5-8 from three), with three rebounds, three assists, a steal and a block as the Warriors went into the half-time leading 67-58.
In an interesting strategic decision, Milwaukee decided to face-guard Steph Curry all the way up to the half-court line when he did not have the ball.
It forced Curry into a decision, where he could either scratch and claw to try and play his usual game, or he could drag his defender out to near half-court, allowing his team-mates to play four-on-four with plenty of extra space.
Curry finished with only seven field goal attempts – his first game this season with less than 10 – but had eight assists, and opened up the game for Thompson and Jordan Poole to dominate.
Thompson finished with a season-high 38 points (15-24 from the field, 8-14 from three), while Poole collected an efficient 30 (9-16 from the field, 5-10 from three, 7-7 from the line).
It was also yet another glimpse of what the seventh overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft, Jonathan Kuminga, could look like when he is fully formed as the 19-year-old scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, spending long periods of the game holding up defensively against Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Antetokounmpo was the sole bright spot for Milwaukee, scoring 31 points (9-17 from the field, 12-18 from the line) to go with his eight rebounds.
Defending champion Justin Thomas and Bubba Watson managed to shoot bogey-free rounds on Saturday at The Players Championship, despite heavy winds.
The duo became the 36-hole clubhouse leaders at three under, but Tommy Fleetwood and Tom Hoge remained at the top of the leaderboard.
Fleetwood only played three holes of his second round on Saturday while Hoge did not even start his before bad light suspended the day's action again.
Stormy weather in the Florida region in the past few days lead to many competitors only finishing their openings rounds on Saturday.
Further weather disruption meant play did not start until midday local time, with 47 players finally completing their opening rounds in the first two hours.
Fleetwood remained at six over par after recording a birdie and a bogey in his three holes, level with Hoge and one shot ahead of Joaquin Niemann, Keith Mitchell and Anirban Lahiri, all tied for third at five under.
Thomas, who won last year's event, carded a three-under 69 to move up to joint-15th place after an even par 72 in his first round, while Watson played himself back into contention with the best second-round score so far of 68 to match Thomas overall on three under.
Dustin Johnson shot 73 in his second round to move to two under, tied for 23rd, while last year's runner-up Lee Westwood will miss the cut after a dismal round of 80 saw him nine over after two rounds.
Brooks Koepka had an even worse day, carding 81 to also sit at nine over, while Rory McIlroy was able to finally complete his first round for 73, before going back out and hitting the same score again, including a double-bogey at the seventh, to leave himself two over.
The par-three 17th was proving particularly tricky in the high winds, with 29 balls finding the water on Saturday, while just four had suffered the same fate in the previous two days. McIlroy said afterwards: "Basically, the green's a big massive dartboard, and you're like, just hit it anywhere on there."
Weather permitting, play is due to resume at TPC Sawgrass on Sunday at 8:15am local time.
Leigh Wood and promoter Eddie Hearn said their primary concern was the health of defeated fighter Michael Conlan after a brutal 12th-round knockout sent him tumbling out of the ring through the ropes.
It capped off an unbelievable fight, where Wood was dropped in the first round before mounting an incredible comeback in the 11th and 12th rounds when clearly behind on the scorecards.
Speaking with DAZN Boxing after stepping out of the ring, defending-champion Wood made it clear that while the victory was sweet, his thoughts were with the man he shared a ring with for more than half an hour.
"I hope Michael's alright," he said.
"I can't really celebrate yet until I know he's alright – my thoughts are with him at the minute."
Promoter Eddie Hearn, while also sympathetic to Conlan's situation, was also willing to discuss what this win could mean for Wood going forward.
Lewis Hamilton claims he is not expecting to be competing for victories at the start of the new Formula One season after experiencing difficulties during testing.
Neither Hamilton, who has won the drivers' championship a joint-record seven times, nor new Mercedes team-mate George Russell were among the fastest drivers on the final day of pre-season testing in Bahrain, as Max Verstappen topped the timesheets.
With Red Bull's defending champion faring well just a week before the Bahrain Grand Prix opens the campaign, Hamilton suggested he is not holding out much hope of a strong start, with Mercedes experiencing performance issues with their new W13 car.
"I'm sure everyone can figure it out, we're not the quickest at the moment," Hamilton told a news conference on Saturday.
"Ferrari looks to be the quickest and perhaps Red Bull, and then maybe us or McLaren. I don't know, but we're certainly not at the top.
"Obviously it's a little bit too early to get into [hopes of winning the drivers' championship] or have those kinds of thoughts, but at the moment I don't think we'll be competing for wins.
"But there is potential within our car to get us there. We've just got to learn to extract it and fix some of the problems.
"That's what we are working on and everyone is doing an incredible job back at the factory working as hard as they can, but we have some hurdles to overcome."
Hamilton, who won 2021's season opener in Bahrain, also denied he was deliberately playing down expectations to hide the car's true strength.
"Obviously next week we'll get a much better showing of our pace, but I think people will be surprised," he explained.
"People keep saying that we keep talking ourselves down, but it's a bit different this year. It feels a lot different. It's not as good, I don't think it's going to look as it did last year with the difficult session we had in testing and then switch over [to win] the race.
"I think we have far bigger challenges this time and they are not one-week turnarounds; they'll take a little bit longer. But, from what I told, we have a considerable amount of pace to find."
"At the moment the performance isn't there," the 24-year-old said.
"We are a step behind our rivals, and we do have a lot of work to do between now and next week to understand, because in every condition the Red Bull and the Ferrari seem a step ahead of us.
"I don't think they're exceptional, I think we're probably not as competitive as we would like.
"[But] I believe the guys are going get to the bottom of it. There is potential there, we just need to figure out a way to unlock that performance."
Rafael Nadal offered his sympathy to Sebastian Korda after scraping past the 21-year-old, who considers his Indian Wells Masters opponent "my biggest idol".
Korda had trained with Nadal earlier this week before the draw paired the two together – an eagerly awaited encounter for the younger man.
Korda is such a big Nadal fan his cat is named after the Spaniard, but he caused some concern for the 21-time major champion and his other supporters on Saturday.
Having talked up the meeting, it looked as though the occasion might get the better of Korda as he quickly fell 4-0 down in the opener.
Nadal had not dropped a set since victory at the Australian Open – one of three tournaments he has entered this year and three tournaments he has won.
But that perfect 15-0 record suddenly came under threat in the second set, as Korda sought to prolong his dream match-up and stunned his hero 6-1.
Suddenly, Nadal was forced to face down one of his biggest fans in a decider and initially struggled badly, falling two breaks down, with Korda serving for the match at 5-2.
This time the nerves did get to Korda, who lost four games in a row before stopping the rot to reach a tie-break.
There, Korda did briefly hold a mini-break lead, but that was only as part of a sequence of five consecutive mini-breaks that took the match away from him, Nadal prevailing 6-2 1-6 7-6 (7-3).
"I feel very, very lucky today to be through, honestly," Nadal said afterwards.
Korda could at least enjoy his consolation prize: compliments from Nadal, who had won their only prior meeting en route to his 2020 French Open title.
"Sebastian was playing some fantastic tennis and I'm sorry for him," Nadal said. "He had chances, but that's tennis.
"He's very young, he has an amazing future. I wish him all the best."
Up next for Nadal is Dan Evans, whose compatriot Cameron Norrie – the defending Indian Wells champion – also advanced with a straight-sets win over Pedro Martinez.
Max Verstappen has played down projections on Red Bull's pace, heading into next weekend's Formula One season opener in Bahrain.
The reigning world champion set the fastest time during the final pre-season test at Sakhir - where next week's opener will also be held - almost a full seven tenths quicker than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in second, and nearly a second quicker than Alpine's Fernando Alonso in third.
However, the 24-year-old asserted Red Bull were more concerned with gathering tyre data at the test than lighting up the timesheets.
"Nobody is [giving it] full beans in qualifying-spec at the moment," Verstappen said. "Of course the car is better in low fuel and actually on the high fuel the car doesn't really do a lot, but it's the same for everyone.
"It was just a general progression of the day and we were just trying a few different tyres. But I think the main focus was about the tyres, we're going to use next week. But the car was feeling alright, and we went through our programme which we planned to do, and that's always positive."
Along with this season's regulation changes on tyre diameter, Verstappen was also quick to point out car response to the Sakhir circuit's more favourable conditions, in comparison to the opening pre-season test in Barcelona.
"You know, compared to Barcelona I think more of it is just the track - the rough surface, warmer conditions, and the layout of the track makes it a completely different feeling compared to Barcelona," he said.
"But yes, of course, I think we learned a lot more about the cars, so we made the car faster, and I think that's what you want.
"I think with the new parts, which arrived today, they also worked well, which you always hope for. They worked, so then hopefully we'll keep them on [for the opening race]."
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