They must find a way to stop Ronaldo
PETE JENSON
FOOTAGE from inside the home dressing room at the Bernabeu on Tuesday underlined what the 90 minutes on the pitch had already demonstrated — Cristiano Ronaldo is still the main man at Real Madrid.
Sitting in front of the locker that bears his glistening image, he received grateful team-mates who approached him one by one to give thanks. ‘Well played Cris’ said one in English. ‘Big man,’ shouted another in Spanish, as Luka Modric gave him a congratulatory hug.
Real Madrid will be in Manchester on Tuesday week because of Ronaldo. While much has changed at the Spanish club since City last went there in 2012, one thing has stayed the same — the No 7 still gets most of the goals. He scored the winner that night in a dramatic group game that Real won 3-2, with coach Jose Mourinho sliding in front of his rival boss Roberto Mancini to celebrate.
Ronaldo was at war with the club at the time, telling reporters he was ‘sad’ and fuelling rumours that he was leaving. Almost four years on the stories of his imminent exit persist, but these days they are fuelled more by Paris Saint-Germain’s interest than by his own desire to quit.
His is now a calmer influence on the dressing room, too. The cliques are nowhere near as pronounced under Zinedine Zidane as they have been under previous coaches and, in the spirit of togetherness, there seems to be less animosity towards his eventual successor Gareth Bale — who sat three players along in that fascinating snapshot of the Galaticos’ inner sanctuary. It has been quite a week for heroics and, after Atletico Madrid saw off Barcelona on Wednesday and Liverpool came from behind to beat Borussia Dortmund on Thursday, Ronaldo’s 90 minutes were in part forgotten, but they were every bit as extraordinary. The team had needed to win by three clear goals and he had scored all of them. A poacher’s finish from the edge of the six-yard box, a centre-forward’s header and then the free-kick with 13 minutes left.
‘Don’t over-do the run-up, nice and slow, I know you’ll score,’ Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas had run up the pitch to tell Ronaldo before he took aim.
The fact that his ear was open to a team-mate in such a crucial moment is another small sign of how he has mellowed.
His son, Cristiano Jnr, will be six in June and the player proudly published a video this week of him taking penalties — and being given 10 press-ups for not scoring them all.
Ronaldo’s own scoring form has never been better with 46 goals this season. No one has scored more in La Liga, where he has 30 for the sixth season running.
The only campaign he failed to score 30 in the league was the year Manuel Pellegrini was in charge. It still rankles with the Chilean coach that people only remember his failings in the Champions League and in the Spanish Cup, yet no one recalls how Ronaldo missed two months with injury.
When Pellegrini was sacked by Real Madrid in 2010, he received the news while having a cup of coffee with the director of Madrid’s famous Reina Sofia art gallery, Manuel Borja-Villel.
Borja-Villel recalls that when Pellegrini’s mobile rang he took the call and, after the briefest of conversations, said that it had been the Real Madrid president telling him he was fired. There was no further reaction.
PELLEGRINI was similarly stony-faced yesterday when asked if there would be any extra spice in this tie because he goes up against his former club and the president who sacked him, despite his team breaking the club’s record points tally.
Privately, he admits that the treatment he received did hurt and this will be the chance to settle old scores. It is just a shame he must get past Ronaldo to do so.
In the light of Barcelona’s recent dip, Ronaldo, Bale and Karim Benzema look like the best forward line in the world. Bale took a back seat against Wolfsburg but he has 15 goals in 19 La Liga games and will be a huge threat.
He and Benzema may even sit out today’s game at Getafe as Zidane looks to rotate ahead of three games in seven days before the trip to Manchester.
‘Not Ronaldo, though,’ said Zidane in his pre-match press conference. Ronaldo plays every game.