The Portuguese wizard grew up in the Sporting youth academy, where he established himself as a professional footballer, before grabbing the attentions of Alex Ferguson in 2003.

"It's always good to come back to my second home, I have lots of friends and colleagues here. I like Sporting a lot but my primary color now is red," Ronaldo told Uefa.com.

Ronaldo is hoping to receive a better reception than the one he got last season when United visited Sporting's arch rivals Benfica.

"To be honest I think the people like me here and the reception will be different than the last season in Estadio da Luz .They are different people. I was booed but that's in the past. I think the reception will be good here."

Apart from homecoming emotions, the 22-year old is confident that his team will have the upper hand when the two sides kick off their European campaign.

"I expect a normal match, very emotional, but I believe we can win it because we're better than Sporting in every respect," he added.

Bento unfazed

On the other hand, Sporting coach Paulo Bento, who was Ronaldo's former teammate at the Lisbon club, claims he does not fear group favorites United.

"We respect Manchester United but we don't fear them. Sporting will not be bystanders; I'm confident we'll battle to win. Maybe they'll control the game for spells but we'll try to take the initiative," said the former Portugal midfielder.

"Sporting are doing well and we're going through a good period, we have to be very good collectively because they're very strong one-on-one, but United have their flaws and Sporting must take advantage."

Bento's team won their last two matches in the Portuguese Superliga, where they lie third with nine points from four games.