Dael Fry has described Cristiano Ronaldo as "beautiful" after playing against the Manchester United superstar.
Fry played his part in Middlesbrough's FA Cup shock win at Old Trafford on Friday night.
Chris Wilder's side saw Ronaldo blaze an early penalty wide before Jadon Sancho opened the scoring. But Boro roared back and Matt Crooks restored parity to send the game to extra time.
The Championship side then sealed a famous win on penalties, 8-7, after Anthony Elanga botched his spot-kick. Fry, who was marking Ronaldo all night, told BBC Tees about his encounter with the Portuguese.
Fry had said in the build-up that he would "have a word" with Ronaldo but he admitted post-match: "I didn't say anything to him. I didn't dare look at him to be honest!
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"But when I did look at him he looked fake, do you know what I mean?
"He's so beautiful in real life. I was like wow! But it was a great game. I really enjoyed it and I'll cherish it forever. I can't really describe it.
"To play against these kind of players and win, it was fantastic.
"Everyone is buzzing. The names on that teamsheet are incredible and to beat them is something else."
Safe to say the evening went as Fry dreamed it would.
In the build-up to the fixture, the 24-year-old said he was looking forward to coming up against a strong side.
"I am looking forward to going to Old Trafford and playing against probably one of the best to ever play the game in Ronaldo.
"I've thought about it quite a lot, to be honest. I've thought about just kind of being stood near him and going, ‘Alright mate’, and see what he says.
"But even just to be stood that close to him will be crazy, but hopefully we can do a job on him as well."
There was a shade of controversy about Crooks' goal. Duncan Watmore clearly handled the ball in the build-up to the equaliser but after a revision of the interpretation of the rule by IFAB during the summer, accidental handball is only penalised if the player in question then scores a goal.
And even though the ball clearly hit Watmore's hand before he lobbed the decisive pass to Crooks, referee Anthony Taylor deemed it to be accidental. This was subsequently backed up by VAR.
Nevertheless, the decision to uphold the goal irked United interim boss Ralf Rangnick.
The German said: "How can it (Middlesbrough goal) be accidental if he controls the ball up in the air with his hand?
"It was clear it should not stand but in the end I was really surprised it stood.
"In the first half we should have easily been 3-0 up and second half we had chances too. We should have won the game in normal time. On penalties it can happen what happened today."
