I knew goals would come, insists Middlesbrough star Alves

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The Brazil striker finally broke his duck in Middlesbrough's 2-2 draw with Manchester United on Sunday, scoring his first two goals since his £12million January transfer window switch from Heerenveen.

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Finding his range: Alves was off the mark with a double against Man Utd

It was only Alves's fourth start since he left the Dutch first division, where he was top scorer last season and finished just one point off the total of Roma's Francesco Totti, the European Golden Boot winner.

Although the two Alves finishes against the champions demonstrated his obvious prowess in front of goal, the 27-year-old anticipated a tough start to life in England.

He said: 'I've seen plenty of the English game so I knew that it would be tough. But I'm already enjoying it. It is a very fast and very high- quality league as I expected. I needed time and patience, but I just knew that the goals would come eventually.'

In little more than 18 months, he has gone from being virtually unknown in his home country to a Premier star. The Middlesbrough snow has nothing on the Swedish winter, where Alves thrived after leaving Brazil, hitting 52 league goals in 95 games during spells at Orgryte and Malmo.

Hardly giants, but Dutch overachievers Heerenveen noticed, paid a club-record £3m a year-and-a-half ago and were rewarded with 34 goals in 31 games in his first season.

The secret was out and the man who failed to make the grade back home was thrust into the Brazil squad for the first international game at Wembley in June.

'Who is Afonso?' asked a baffled journalist in Sao Paulo, when Dunga called him up. The Brazil coach countered: 'He is little-known, yes. But he is a strong, tall, fast aggressor with good technique.'

Eight caps and one goal later he is yet to really fire for Brazil but he is already making his Boro mark.