Ronaldo used to play in the Champions League at the European level, but now he has to settle for the much more modest Europa League. But even in it, it doesn’t exactly shine by its standards. So far, he has scored only one goal, and that was from a penalty against Tiraspol.
After all, this is his only goal of the season so far. He didn’t score even in the last representative duels with the Czech Republic and Spain, he spent the Manchester derby on the bench, and he didn’t even score the jubilee 700th goal in his club career in Thursday’s European League duel in Nicosia, Cyprus (3:2).
And that his teammates tried hard for the 37-year-old striker to reach an important milestone. They passed to him in open chances, but Ronaldo just didn’t have his day.
He blocked an almost 100% chance when Diogo Dalot served him the ball in front of the open goal, but the famous CR7 only hit the post.
Manchester United had to turn the game around from 0:1 and defended a narrow 3:2 lead in the last five minutes, but even in this situation, it seemed that the English club was mainly focused on Ronaldo finally scoring.
Even on Thursday, two-goal Marcus Rashford suppressed his ambitions to complete a hat-trick and in the end encouraged Ronaldo to score, but he did not use his pass.
One of the greatest footballers of all time failed in the final minutes when he acted selfishly and tried to finish himself instead of passing to the better placed Anthony Martial. But he was heading next door.
The very obvious and ultimately futile team-wide effort to beat Ronaldo’s goalscoring record also drew a lot of derisive comments on social networks.
