A fickle season passes for Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese phenomenon who arrived in the summer with loud cheers from Juventus to Manchester United opened his second term in red perfectly. With a debut that included a double at Old Trafford and crucial winning goals in the Premier League and Champions League, Cristiano seemed to be back at United to bring it back to the glory days. But expectations aside and reality aside. Very quickly CR7 realized that at the age of 37, he would not be able to carry the red demons on his back alone and at some point the decline in ability came.
Until Ronaldo’s goal against Brighton, the striker held the longest negative record of his career without a goal, completing six games in which he played 538 minutes and did not find the net. Something goes through the Portuguese it sure is, age is doing its thing but it’s much beyond.
Tonight (Wednesday, 22:00) he reaches the most critical turning point of his season – Atletico Madrid. If there is one thing that Ronaldo likes to star in, it is the Champions League and if there is one team he likes to celebrate against, it is Atletico Madrid. Now, he has been given the perfect combination of the two in the perfect opportunity to make a comeback to his and Manchester United’s season, and more on the soil of Madrid, the city where he rose to greatness.
Days of drought
As mentioned, Ronaldo has completed the longest streak of his career without a goal this season. You can blame the rest of his teammates for not providing him with the opportunities, but if we are honest for a moment, that’s not the case. In the last games of Manchester United, Cristiano has reached countless situations that on a normal day, not his big day, he would have easily consulted the net and taken care to bring precious points to the Red Devils in the battle for the Champions League. Surprisingly and almost unreasonably and illogically for anyone who has watched Ronaldo over the years, he looks thoughtful in front of goal and insecure in a way that is somewhat reminiscent of one of the most winning players in the history of the game.
Suddenly the perfect penalties that earned him the nickname “Penaldo” are no longer accurate, the speed and lightness of the legs are no longer as they were and one of the greatest in history finds himself at the big crossroads in his career. Why is all this happening to Ronaldo? The truth, very difficult to explain. He did score against Brighton, but the huge miss from a meter away in front of the goal against Leeds in the last league round proved once again that CR7 is not there yet. On days when everything is not going the person’s tendency is to usually go back to the seller, to the comfort zone, and remind himself of the time when the world was more rosy. For Ronaldo, this pink world is Atletico – one of the rivals the Portuguese most likes to face and holds a simply frightening record against them.
The horror of the Colchoneros
No matter how you turn it around, Atletico Madrid are terrified of Cristiano Ronaldo. Almost every time the star meets her he celebrates in front of her and despite his recent meager ability, it is highly doubtful that we will not see him do it again in front of her on the biggest stage. Note the following figure – in 35 games against the Colchoneros, the Portuguese scored 25 goals and scored another 9. This is a goal less than a game and a half and involvement in the goal every 83 minutes. In the Champions League, his balance against the Spaniards is 7 goals and 3 assists in 10 games. In fact only against Sevilla Ronaldo scored more (27 goals).
Ronaldo has completed a hat-trick four times against Diego Simeone’s side, twice in the Spanish league and twice in the Champions League, with the last three times he has scored a hat-trick against the Spaniards being in his last eight games against them. The first time in Europe is remembered by everyone with the three goals he scored against Atletico in the Real Madrid uniform in the factory semi-final in the 2016/17 season, so the Blancos went all the way and won the title.
The second time is remembered by all and took place very recently, in the debut season of CR7 at Juventus, then brought back the Bianconeri from a 2-0 deficit from the first game in the quarterfinals of the Champions League to 2: 3 with his heroic display in return which included three goals and a very famous counter celebration to that of Czech ‘Even from the first game.
Surprisingly Ronaldo even has a goal in a free kick against Atletico (an aspect in which he has not specialized much in recent years), with his recent penalty miss against Middlesbrough in the English Cup not really worrying when looking at his accurate penalties against the Spanish capital team. He scored six times from the penalty spot against the Colchoneros and never missed a penalty in front of them. To clear the ear and understand how dominant Cristiano is against Atletico, here’s another statistic – all the knockout games that Atletico Madrid lost between 2014 and 2019 were against a team where the Portuguese phenomenon played.
Over the years Cristiano has proven that he is simply great at Atletico, not as part of a team but by the very fact of being a huge player alone. Even when they had a comfortable 2: 0 advantage against him and against Juventus, they fell silent and could not stand his tremendous power. And although Ronaldo is not at his peak, it should be remembered that the opponent is also light years away from its peak. The tough team that has characterized Simeone’s style of play over the years no longer exists. The aggressiveness, the order on the field and the toughness that stood out for the Colchoneros, especially in defense, is no longer there.
In six games this season in the Champions League, the team from Madrid conceded eight goals and finished the home stage with a negative goal ratio, while in La Liga it conceded 34 goals in 25 rounds. If in front of the defense that was later the best in the world Ronaldo Tile, his duel against the beloved opponent this time only ignites the imagination and if a phase change is made, it can end in a big celebration.
The rash around him
Although Ronaldo has not provided the numbers recently, in recent games it seems that at least in the attack the blossoming that was so expected at Old Tapord is happening. Paul Pogba is back from injury and shows once again that when he wants to, he is one of the best midfielders in the world. His ability to relieve stress, cope physically and add a creative dimension to linking the Red Devils is simply irreplaceable.
When you add to that Bruno Fernandez’s return to the ability that characterized him in his first year and a half at United, you get an almost completely new link, one that can provide a definite situation for Ronaldo at any given moment. As we have seen in recent games, while Scott McTominy or Fred are busy with the black work, Pogba serves as a 50/50 midfielder who is busy most of the time building the offense and taking down the load as well as the tight guard on Bruno. In doing so, the magician from Portugal is much more available and is looking for his teammate at any moment, who only needs to return to the familiar ability and finish the situations he gets.
If that wasn’t enough, Jayden Sancho was finally starting to wake up. The English diamond may not yet be sharp enough in front of goal but after a long period of indifference and insecurity, he is starting to come back to himself with the great dribbles that made it so difficult for the Bundesliga defenses and the dizzying speed that characterized his time in Dortmund. At the start of the season, all the attacking burden was on Ronaldo in the absence of the productivity of the rest of his teammates and now that they are the ones in the spotlight, he just needs to take advantage of the momentum they are in to get himself back in the picture.
Mr. Champions
Needless to say it has been said about a million times before, but Cristiano Ronaldo is the king of the Champions League. This is his stage, this is his comfort zone and this is the competition in which he thrives. Something in the champions’ anthem, the strong rivalry and the glamor of the factory enchants CR7 when you can always count on it to provide receipts in the European arena. This season Cristiano has six goals in the factory in five appearances and it can be said with caution that had it not been for his crucial goalscorers, United would have found themselves now in the playoffs of the Europa League. He is wounded, angry, hungry and is again in the perfect position to prove everyone wrong. In a situation like this, can anyone bet against him?
