Ronaldo ready for ‘defining game’
MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that Real Madrid’s season is now effectively all about their Champions League tie on Wednesday against Paris SaintGermain as the Spanish giants trail off the pace in La Liga.
Real host PSG at the Santiago Bernabeu in the first leg of their last-16 tie, with the return set for March 6 in the French capital.
Zinedine Zidane’s side have won the Champions League in each of the last two seasons, and it is eight years since Real were eliminated at this stage.
Madrid are currently fourth in La Liga, 17 points behind leaders Barcelona, albeit with a game in hand. They also exited the Copa del Rey, dumped out by Leganes.
“The tie ... is one that could define the whole season,” Ronaldo told Real’s website after picking up a prize for best player in the world last season from the website Goal.com.
“We’re going to come up against a great team with excellent players, whom we respect a lot.
“But we’ve already shown that we have a very strong, united and experienced group in this competition.”
Real warmed up for the tie with a big 5-2 win over Real Sociedad at the weekend, a game in which Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, but that has failed to ease the pressure on Zinedine Zidane. His future in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu is hanging by a thread, possibly tied to the outcome of the looming showdown with PSG.
“This is an unprecedented situation, but we must live with it, hold our course,” Zidane said in an interview with French radio station RTL aired on Monday.
He has won eight trophies since replacing the unpopular Rafa Benitez in the Madrid dugout, including an unprecedented five in one calendar year in 2017.
Zidane also oversaw the club’s first La Liga and European Cup double since 1958 as well as a record 40-match unbeaten run.
But now they stand fourth in La Liga, at risk of finishing off the podium in their domestic league for the first time since 2004. Finishing second behind Tottenham Hotspur in their Champions League group also exposed them to this tougher draw.
The man born and raised in a tough neighborhood of Marseille needs the tonic of a win over the Parisian aristocrats.
“We also must not dismiss everything we have done because of our form at the moment,” he told RTL, mindful that recent improved results in La Liga have not completely shaken away the doubts.
“This is not some other club — the slightest negative thing here and the media make a song and dance out of it.” —