Cristiano Ronaldo hit with a spectacular fallback. Photo: Alberto Lingria / XinHua
(Photo: dpa)
When defending champions Real Madrid won 3-0 at Juventus in the first leg of the quarter-finals, the world footballer provided a great moment in the Champions League in the 64th minute. With a spectacular overhead kick, he made it 2-0 after he had already scored the guests’ quick opening goal (3rd). “Mamma mía!” headlined the Madrid sports newspaper “Marca” on Wednesday.
On the pitch, Ronaldo thanked the Italians in the stands with his hands folded and thumbs up. “It was an incredible moment for me,” he said after the game. “I’ve never experienced something like that in my entire career, that I’m cheered on by the opponent. What the Juve fans have done is unbelievable,” said the Portuguese. He then thanked him again in Italian: “Grazie!”
Ronaldo, who also played the decisive pass through Marcelo in the 72nd minute to make it 3-0, shows at the age of 33 that the end of his career is not an issue. The Spanish newspaper “AS” calculated that in the 2-0 Ronaldo hit Dani Carvajal’s cross with his right instep at a height of 2.23 meters. “Which planet did you come from?” the newspaper asks the striker on the first page. “Marca” wrote that “CR7” has “deserved heaven”.
The man from the island of Madeira was showered with praise after Real’s victory and was hailed by the Spanish media as “Witcher” and “ET”. Two numbers speak for his quality: 649 career goals, 119 of them in the Champions League.
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In the premier class, thanks to the brace in Turin, he set a record with ten games in a row with goals. This season he has already scored 14 goals in the Champions League – just three fewer than his record from the 2013/2014 season.
Juve defender Andrea Barzagli said Ronaldo’s goal “will probably go down in history”. Even Juve goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon congratulated him with a hug and then said Ronaldo was on the same level as legends like Diego Maradona, Lionel Messi and Pelé. Only one teased: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish LA Galaxy striker, known as the talker, said on US television that Ronaldo had “scored a nice goal” but that he should try “from 40 meters instead of ten”. The 36-year-old was referring to his dream goal from 2012. In Sweden’s 4-2 win over England, he also scored with an overhead kick – from more than thirty meters.
Real, currently only fourth in the Primera División, was clearly superior and could have won higher. The crossbar, for example, prevented goals from Kroos (36th) and Kovacic (87th). When Juve’s best man Paulo Dybala received a second yellow card just two minutes after Ronaldo’s dream goal, the home side – who had won all four previous two-legged comparisons against Real – had no chance.
For Buffon, the dream of a first Champions League title is now a long way off. It’s bad that his team probably won’t get any further, said the 40-year-old. The coach of the Italian leaders, Massimiliano Allegri, spoke of bad luck, but also admitted: “In sport it’s like in life: if someone is better, you applaud and you go back to work to become like him. ”
The bankruptcy came at a particularly bad time for an old lady professional: world champion Sami Khedira turned 31 on Wednesday. There was probably little to celebrate.
Statements by Ronaldo
Front page of AS
Juventus happy birthday to Khedira, Italian
Match comments on Juve website, Italian
