With practically his first touch of the match, the Portuguese forward turned home a stunning ball from international teammate Bruno Fernandes to open his account in this season’s competition, with the strike coming 12 years and 132 days after his last United goal in the Champions League.
Ronaldo now has 135 goals in this competition, 15 ahead of Lionel Messi in second.
It had already been an eventful evening for Ronaldo in the Swiss capital of Bern after a wayward shot during the pre-match warm up struck a security guard who was near the stands.
Ronaldo quickly hopped over the advertising boards to go and check on the person, who was being looked after by other stadium personnel.
On the pitch, things got slightly more complicated for United later in the first half after defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka was shown a straight red card for a clumsy lunge on Christopher Martins.
More to follow…