By the time he took his leave, deep into stoppage time, Cristiano Ronaldo’s job had long been done. It is not so long since the Manchester United forward was renowned as a player who choked on the European stage, but his 30th goal in as many matches, and his eighth Champions League goal in 12 months, secured their place in the quarter-finals, even if he, like his team-mates, will reflect that there is considerable room for improvement if they are to justify their billing among the favourites to win the competition.

It had been far from vintage Ronaldo and far from vintage United over the course of the evening, as had been the case in France 13 days earlier, but, once again, after the odd nervous moment, Sir Alex Ferguson, the manager, could reflect on a job done. In one sense, the tie was won and lost with three minutes remaining in the first leg, when Carlos Tévez scrambled home an equaliser. Alain Perrin, the Lyons coach, ruefully suggested as much after the final whistle last night, but, given that Kader Keita, the substitute, struck the frame of the United goal with 19 minutes remaining, Ronaldo’s moment of opportunism late in the first half was priceless.

“Thirty goals in a season is incredible and we’re only just going into March, when we could potentially have another 16 or 17 games ahead of us,” Ferguson said. “The goal tonight was well taken. It probably wasn’t the best goal he has scored this season, but it was certainly one of the most important.”

It says much about Ronaldo’s reputation as a scorer of great goals — not just a great goalscorer — that this was regarded as a routine effort. There had appeared to be little on when, four minutes before half-time, after an impressive burst to the touchline from Wes Brown, Anderson’s shot was blocked into the forward’s path. With François Clerc blocking the way to goal, Ronaldo opted to take the ball on to his left foot. The speed with which he did so caused the defender to slip and, within a split second, the ball was in the Lyons net, Ronaldo drilling a low just inside Grégory Coupet’s near post.

To that point, Ronaldo had been enduring one of those evenings when he appears convinced that the football gods are not smiling on him. He struck two free kicks against the defensive wall and was also guilty of selfishness when he cut inside and shot, with Wayne Rooney far better placed in the six-yard box. Rooney appeared irritated with his team-mate at that moment, but by the end of the first half, as so often over the past 18 months, he and his United colleagues found themselves indebted to the Portugal winger.

A few words, though, for some of the supporting cast. Brown, amid a contract dispute, was sound defensively at right back and an occasional source of penetration going forward; Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, reunited in the centre of defence, ensured that the highly rated Karim Benzema barely got a kick; Rooney, though he might have been selfindulgent once or twice in the second half, toiled until the very end; and Darren Fletcher, surprisingly preferred to Owen Hargreaves or Paul Scholes in central midfield, was tireless as ever and denied Lyons any time on the ball.

For all that, the absence of Hargreaves and Scholes from midfield appeared a little strange at first, particularly given Ferguson’s assertion in the match programme, with reference to his selection for the first leg, that “this was the Champions League and we needed the experience of players such as Hargreaves, Scholes and Giggs”. During a 15-minute slump midway through the first half, with the scoresheet blank and anxiety in danger of setting in, that experience seemed to be sorely lacking, with Lyons establishing a foothold as they briefly — briefly — laid siege to the United penalty area, with Edwin van der Sar forced into an awkward save by Kim Källström.

The main threat from Lyons was the fearsome set-piece delivery of Juninho Pernambucano, who is relatively ponderous in open play but comes to life when the ball is dead. Three times the former Brazil player shot from distances that even Ronaldo would baulk at, but on this occasion his guided missiles missed their target. Ferguson even hinted afterwards that Juninho’s dead-ball proficiency might have been one reason why he did not pick Scholes, an errant tackler at the best of times, in the starting line-up.

The closest Lyons came was in the 71st minute when Keita exchanged passes with Benzema before shooting against the foot of a post. Shortly afterwards, Rooney, put through by Hatem Ben Arfa’s careless back-pass, had the chance to make the tie safe, but he shot straight at Coupet, ensuring that the final 15 minutes were a relatively anxious time. As Ferguson put it, United were “on a knife-edge”.

That, though, is how United like it in Europe. Rather than send on Hargreaves to close the game, Ferguson introduced Tévez in an attempt to make it 2-0. When Hargreaves was summoned in stoppage time, it was purely to wind down the clock and to afford Ronaldo the latest standing ovation in his career, which he accepted with customary modesty.

Manchester United (4-2-3-1): E van der Sar - W Brown, R Ferdinand, N Vidic, P Evra – D Fletcher, M Carrick – C Ronaldo (sub: O Hargreaves, 90min), Anderson (sub: C Tévez, 70), Nani – W Rooney. Substitutes not used: T Kuszczak, J O’Shea, P Scholes, Park Ji Sung, L Saha. Booked: Evra, Nani, Fletcher.

Lyons (4-1-4-1): G Coupet – F Clerc, S Squillaci, Cris, F Grosso – J Toulalan – S Govou (sub: K Keita, 67), Juninho Pernambucano, K Källström (sub: Fred, 79), H Ben Arfa – K Benzema. Substitutes not used: R Vercoutre, JA Boumsong, A Mounier, M Bodmer, C Delgado. Booked: Grosso, Squillaci.

Referee: R Rosetti (Italy).