The National Canine Defence League

More match reports, more praise for Macheda, and a defence of Ronaldo.
The Sun's report starts with much praise for Macheda:

It was fitting on Easter Saturday that he resurrected United’s title bid — for the second time in a week. ...

The Republic of Mancunia might as well be renamed into the Feder-al Republic of Mached-onia.

Not the region in northern Greece where Alexander the Great was born before going on to conquer the world.

But a part of northern England, with its own Roman conqueror.

The man who cost almost a THOUSAND times less than Dimitar Berbatov has proved priceless.

The rest of the report is just useless though, saying:

Sunderland dominated

Which is news to me. The Telegraph have some match stats on the right of this page, to quote 3:

Possession
Sunderland 34% Man Utd 66%

Shots
Sunderland 10 Man Utd 12

Pass Success
Sunderland 72% Man Utd 87%

And that's domination is it? The only thing that's close is shots, suggesting Sunderland were good on the counterattack. Which they were. They were by no stretch of the imagination dominant.
Phil Bardsley sums things up better than most of the football writers, quoted in The Times:

As a son of Salford, a former player at Old Trafford and still a supporter of the club, Bardsley is familiar with the process. “No one should be worried if they’re not playing their best football of the season,” he said. “Their big players just roll their sleeves up. Rather than having a wobble, it’s a sign of a great team that they’re winning games like this one and Aston Villa.

“We have seen so many late goals for United over the years and they have been up to their old tricks again in the last few weeks. That just goes to show what a side they are. The manager seems to keep producing player after player and team after team. You wonder how, but he keeps doing it. Credit to him for showing faith in the new lad.”

After spending ages trying to make us sound suspect Michael Walker in The Independent stumbles upon the truth:

It would be an exaggeration to say United were seriously wobbling but the odd tremor was why Ferguson used the word "sloppy".

It wasn't a great performance by any means, but we did enough to deserve the win against a Sunderland side who played above themselves.
There's some other players commenting on Macheda in The Telegraph, Ben Foster:

“He’s quite level-headed and I don’t think any of the lads would let him get carried away anyway,” Foster said. “Gary Neville would quickly put his foot down on anything like that.”

“He’s saying it was one of those intended deft touches into the corner but I don’t think many of the lads believe him,” Foster added.

“But it’s a fantastic story. He got the goal last week against Aston Villa and he’s won us this game. He’s been doing it for the reserves all season.”

And Scholes:

“It’s great to be able to throw on a young lad like that,” Scholes said. “He looks like a great goalscorer and I’m sure the other boys will keep his feet on the ground.”

While The Mail, obsessed as always by the money, report that Macheda is to get a pay rise:

Federico Macheda's stunning start to his Manchester United career is to be rewarded with a new £10,000-a-week contract this summer.

The 17-year-old, known as ‘Kiko’, currently earns £400-a-week but is on the first-team appearance bonus of £2,000 a game in the Premier League.

There's an article by Steven Howard in The Sun urging people to get behind Ronaldo, which is refreshing in being the opposite of pretty much everything ever written about Ronaldo:

if both management and supporters are not 100 per cent behind him, not only will their defence of the Champions League come to an end in the Estadio do Dragao but they will drive him even further into the warm embrace of Real Madrid. ...

Alex Ferguson’s veiled criticism of his superstar — giving the ball away in particular — has probably been overplayed.

But there is no escaping the general muttering around Old Trafford in the past few weeks that Ronaldo has gone off the boil.

Well, how long did United punters actually expect him to be steaming away like a household kettle?

He cannot score 30 to 40 goals every season. He cannot get United out of a hole every weekend.

OK, he did not play particularly well against Aston Villa but he still scored two of his side’s three goals.

And, no, nor did he have his best game against Porto. Yet all we hear is how he lost possession against both sides in the build-up to goals — despite the fact there were more pivotal errors after his own. ...

Ronaldo, by comparison, has 20 in all, 10 in the last 17 and is joint-top Premier League scorer with Nicolas Anelka. Yet he is the one who gets most of the aggravation.

For one reason. Because even more, maybe, than Rooney, his standards are so much higher.

It is also notable for looking beyond the much trotted out no-English-club-has-won-at-Porto-thing:

The task is not made any easier by Porto’s home record against English sides — P12, W5, D7, L0. Yet they are far from unbeatable. Dynamo Kiev won 1-0 at the Estadio do Dragao only last October.

On that game, The Mirror report what we'd already assumed, that Ferdinand will probably start:

Ferdinand could have played in United's 2-1 win at Sunderland on Saturday, but it was decided not to take the risk to ensure he is fit for Wednesday.

Ferdinand has been included in United's travelling party that leaves for Porto tomorrow and is ready to resume his successful central defensive partnership with Nemanja Vidic.

A source close to Ferdinand rated the 30-year-old's chances as "80-20" to start on Wednesday and said the defender was willing to undergo pain-killing injections to play.

I'm beginning to feel almost optimistic about Wednesday...