Godin ready for Ronaldo

– The man who has marshalled the best defence in the World Cup so far will relish the task of trying to stop his old foe Cristiano Ronaldo when Uruguay and Portugal meet in Sochi today.

The Madrid derby comes to the shores of the Black Sea in the last-16 with Uruguayan captain Diego Godin (above), of Atletico, and his club teammate Jose Gimenez coming up against Real and Portugal’s five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

It will be a fascinating battle at the Fisht Stadium with Ronaldo, at 33, enjoying his best World Cup and Uruguay the only side to come through the group stage in Russia without conceding a goal.

Godin is an expert at keeping clean sheets, as the leader of an Atletico defence that is the most formidable in the European club game and a Uruguayan side that has not conceded a goal in 2018 in six games.

Ronaldo, though, has already scored four times at this World Cup. That means he has 85 international goals, more than any other male European player in history. In the last two years, he has scored two hattricks for Real against Atletico, having also emerged victorious in two Madrid derby Champions League finals.

But Godin has succeeded in muzzling Ronaldo on plenty of occasions at club level.

“Godin is a star. He defends, commands, scores goals, wins titles, and does not miss a game,” said Diego Maradona.

Today Gimenez is set to rejoin Godin in central defence after missing the 3-0 victory over Russia due to injury.

And Uruguay has excellent, Italian-based midfielders in Rodrigo Bentancur, Lucas Torreira and Matias Vecino, while up front they boast two of the greatest goalscorers of their generation in Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani.

Suarez has scored twice in Russia. One more and he will equal 1950 World Cup-winner Oscar Miguez’s Uruguayan record of eight goals at the tournament. – AFP