"Nobody gave a f*** who I was before that goal."
On March 4 2009, the full-time whistle is blown at St James' Park. Manchester United are cantering towards their 11th Premier League title under Sir Alex Ferguson.
Goals from Wayne Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov had seen United come from behind to beat Newcastle 2-1 and restore their seven-point lead at the top of the table. Buoyed by their League Cup final victory over Tottenham the previous weekend, the Reds had just claimed their 11th successive victory in the league.
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A visit from bitter rivals Liverpool awaited Ferguson's side in their following match. Having beaten them 2-1 at Anfield earlier in the season, alongside the fact that Rafael Benitez's side lost 2-0 to Middlesbrough just two games prior, meant that nobody foresaw what would happen next.
A then 24-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo gave United the lead with a 23rd-minute penalty and United looked set to make it 12 straight victories in a row, but Liverpool had other ideas. Fernando Torres levelled the scores just five minutes later, before Steven Gerrard put the visitors ahead with a penalty of their own, moments before half-time.
In the second half, Fabio Aurelio and Andrea Dossena sealed a 4-1 win for the visitors.
The title was still firmly in United's hands as they headed to Craven Cottage looking to bounce back from that defeat in their next game. United were without Nemanja Vidic, following his sending off against Liverpool, but still had more than enough to win against a Fulham side who hadn't beaten United at home in 45 years.
Yet football is seldom romantic, and the powers that be had no time for a rose-tinted view of United's title charge.
After 18 minutes, Paul Scholes was shown a straight red card for handling Bobby Zamora's goal-bound header, with Danny Murphy dispatching the resulting penalty. United may have been down to 10-men, but they were pressing for a second-half equaliser, when Zoltan Gera struck on the break with a superb control and finish.
Moments later, Rooney threw the ball away in frustration, which prompted referee Phil Dowd to brandish a second yellow-card on a what was a miserable day for United - their lead had been cut to just one point.
A home game against Aston Villa was next - a routine victory would have been expected in almost any circumstance, but the pressure was on. Vidic was still unavailable, as were Scholes and Rooney, yet United had enough about them to get the job done.
Martin O’Neill’s side had taken just one point from their previous five games and had gone eight matches without a win in all competitions. Despite the fact that United had named five academy graduates on the bench, this was surely only heading one way.
In a similar theme to the Liverpool game, Ronaldo once again opened the scoring after United were awarded an indirect free-kick in the 14th minute as Brad Friedel handled the ball from a Villa backpass.
However, Villa were back level after John Carew headed home on the half-hour mark. With the scores level at half-time, United fans could scarcely believe their eyes as Gabriel Agbonlahor made it 2-1 in the 58th minute.
The 11th title that had looked a shoo-in just three games earlier was quickly slipping out of United's hands as they were staring down the barrel of their third league defeat in as many games. But, as the saying goes, diamonds are made under pressure - and Ferguson was about to bring on a gem of his own.
Whether through desperation, inspiration or divine intervention, Ferguson introduced Federico Macheda on the hour-mark for his United debut. A daunting prospect at the best of times for a 17-year-old, let alone when your side are about to see the Premier League trophy potentially slip out of their hands in front of your own fans.
So what exactly does go through the mind of a teenager before they make their debut for a club like United?
"We drove to Old Trafford on the morning of the match," Macheda told ESPN. "Unlike now, the team didn't stay in a hotel before matches. I was excited and scared. I wondered what I would do if I came on. I went into the dressing room of the reigning European champions. I'd only [trained] with those big-name players twice in the previous two days and I didn't know them; I was a reserve player."
A reserve player he may have been, but not anymore.
Ronaldo managed to bring the scores level at 2-2 in the 81st minute, but United needed a winner. In the dying embers of the match, Ryan Giggs found Macheda with his back to goal.
It is the 93rd minute, with more than 70,000 pairs of eyes trained on one teenager - as he takes a touch, wrong-footing Luke Young, before curling an audacious shot into the far corner - cue pandemonium both on the pitch and in the stands.
"My life changed that day and it has never been the same since," Macheda explained. "Nobody gave a f*** who I was before that goal but the day after I would go to the Trafford Centre and have 100 people around me.
"To this moment, it remains the best football day of my life. I woke up and I was on the front page of newspapers all around the world. My friends were calling me from Rome and crying down the phone. I went into training and all the staff were high-fiving me and saying well done."
As if scoring one winning goal wasn't enough, Macheda would go on to make the vital difference away to Sunderland in the very next league game, as he turned home a Michael Carrick shot in the 76th minute to win the match 2-1 for his side.
"I came off the bench in the next league game at Sunderland and scored the winning goal again! I'd only been on the pitch one minute when I scored. Two winning goals in one week."
United would go on to win their next five games in a row after the win at the Stadium of Light, clinching the Premier League title with a 0-0 draw against Arsenal at Old Trafford, with a game to spare.
Macheda may not have forged a long-term career at United, making 19 appearances in total for the club, but when a team full of superstars needed someone to turn to in order to salvage their season - Kiko came good.
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