Ronaldo In Tunnel Brawl

Christiano Ronaldo CRISTIANO RONALDO was involved in a furious half-time tunnel bust-up with Newcastle's Steven Taylor on Wednesday.

The Portuguese winger was fuming with the England Under-21 skipper after a clash seconds before the break.

Taylor looked lucky to escape a red card, after appearing to hit Ronaldo in the side of the face and leaving the United ace stretched out on the turf.

Ronaldo felt he was clobbered by Taylor, who got only a booking from ref Steve Bennett, and let fly with a verbal blast at the Toon's style.

It was claimed he said: “Your style of football is s**t". Taylor hit back and snapped: “Well you are ugly!”

It was a nasty flashpoint in a clash United won with goals from Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov.

Boss Alex Ferguson was just relieved to see his side stretch their lead at the top of the Premier League back to seven points.

United had been rocked by Peter Lovenkrands giving the Geordies a ninth-minute lead.

The goal ended United keeper Edwin van der Sar's unbeaten run at 1,311 minutes.

Ferguson said: “Coming back from 1-0 down to win is a great result for us.

“Newcastle were pumped up. We could have gone two-down. It was a hairy spell.”