‘Centre’ of attraction Ron ’tricks Atletico Same old story for Simeone’s Atletico
Real’s Portuguese star continues to reinvent himself going from flying winger to deadly forward
No longer the flying winger of old, Cristiano Ronaldo showed his transformation to deadly centre forward has been completed to perfection as he netted a superb hat-trick in Real Madrid’s 3-0 Champions League win over Atletico Madrid.
The Portuguese forward, who also scored a treble in the quarterfinal against Bayern Munich at the Santiago Bernabeu, and five goals across that tie, is revelling in the central striker’s role he has adopted this season.
He was picked alongside Karim Benzema up front in Tuesday’s first-leg clash and produced a performance that marked him out as arguably the world’s best number nine, despite being a recent convert to the position.
While the 32-year-old’s critics point out he has lost some of his pace and the dribbling ability that allowed him to terrorise fullbacks in the past, the forward proved again that he remains as deadly as ever inside the area.
Tuesday’s treble took his tally for Real Madrid to 399 goals in 389 games, although the forward claims he scored another in 2010 that was officially awarded to defender Pepe.
“I am very happy for the goals and for reaching 400 goals with Real Madrid,” said Ronaldo, including the disputed effort.
“We have to congratulate the whole team, we were tremendous. It fell to me to score the goals. We played well from start to finish and the goals came naturally,” Ronaldo added.
As well as a positional switch, Ronaldo has had to deal this season with being rotated by French coach Zinedine Zidane, who has dropped the Portuguese for some of the team’s away trips to keep him fresh for the big occasions.
This has paid dividends with Ronaldo netting eight times in his last three Champions League games and overtaking Alfredo di Stefano as the all-time top scorer in European Cup semi-finals with 13.
“He has the instinct for goals, he’s unique,” said Zidane.
“Sometimes he needs to rest and he knows that because he’s intelligent.”
Atletico Madrid’s 3-0 loss to rivals Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal on Tuesday was just a continuation of results that have blighted the team for almost 60 years.
Real’s victory at the Santiago Bernabeu means they are poised to knock Atletico out of the European elite competition for the fourth successive year.
Two of those defeats came in the 2014 and 2016 finals in Lisbon and Milan respectively, the other a quarterfinal elimination in 2015, but perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Tuesday’s result was that it was fully deserved.
Madrid dominated from start to finish with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick, while Atletico only created two real chances in the first half, and wasted both.
The loss was a continuation of results Atletico have suffered in continental competition against Madrid since the European Cup semifinal in 1959 despite coach Diego Simeone’s reign bringing more balance to the rivalry.
The Argentine, however, has not given up on his team’s chances yet.
“We will try and take the chance we have, no matter how small it is,” Simeone told report ers. “I feel relaxed, more than anything else, more than ever.
“We will try for something impossible, as we are Atletico Madrid, we are capable of doing it.”
However, despite the coach’s words of hope, elimination seems an inevitability.
A pre-match banner caused some consternation at Atletico according to reports in Spanish media, as Madrid fans created a display which read ‘tell me how it feels’, with references to Milan and Lisbon.
Over 4,000 Atletico fans attended the game and they remained for over 15 minutes after the final whistle, singing about never giving up on their support for the team.
Unfortunately their team had given up on them by the 73rd minute of the first leg, conced ing Ronaldo’s second goa before he completed his hat trick four minutes from the end leaving themselves little hope of a comeback next week.