Ronaldo's whole career and legacy comes down to all those little mistakes that defenders did (especially his 2017 ucl campaign) so your point IS indeed irrelevant. That's what strikers do by default, they capitalize on defenders' mistakes.
It was definitely the lesser of the 2 goals he scored that night but when you combine it with the first goal it translates to a great night at the office. Not sure why that's so difficult to admit.
lol 'routine goal' The difficulty level of those 2 passes was extremely high, as anyone who has ever played the game would know. You should appreciate it more since its going to be etched into your memory for the next 4 years.
+ a perfectly executed, difficult long ball followed by a clever off the ball movement before first routine goal (imo top 3 goal of the WC along side France's 4th vs Argentina and Belgium's 3rd vs Japan) + tremendously helpful defensively + executing target man role perfectly (holding onto ball and winning aerial duels) + opening up several counter attacks by fine passing + second goal,.. damn good strike Imo one of the best performances in wc,.. i start doubting you even watched the game, and with that attitude, every performance can sound ridiculous
Speaking about facts... Considering the fact that Manchester City finished dead last in the group, with even Ajax finishing above Manchester City... How much credit does Ronaldo deserve for scoring goals against a badly performing Manchester City that couldn't even finish above Ajax?? Ajax scored 5 goals vs. Manchester City. Real Madrid scored 4 goals vs. Manchester City. How does Ronaldo become the savior for contributing to Real Madrid scoring less goals than Ajax?? How is this in any way a great example of Cristiano Ronaldo elevating Real Madrid into somehow scoring less goals than Ajax scored against the exact same Manchester City?? It really makes absolutely no sense in my book, and again, it is the inherent fundamental mistake with Ronaldo fans... They think that scoring goals is the means and the ends, the everything, which is why they fail to understand that what Real Madrid was doing for Ronaldo to score those goals, was actually counter-productive given the low returns not by Ronaldo himself but by the actual team as a the collective unit that it is. Simply put: Ronaldo was not giving what was proportionally balanced with regards to what Real Madrid was giving to him. Scoring a 90+ winning goal is not sufficient end product when you should've scored at least 2 or 3 goals. Di Maria assisted 3 goals out of the 4 goals, which is impressive considering everything else that Di Maria offered besides scoring those assists. Benzema scored 2 goals out of 4 goals. Ronaldo scored only 1 goal, did not assisted ANY goal, but somehow Ronaldo becomes the savior who rescued Real Madrid via a 90+ minute winning goal. Now think about that for a minute... Di Maria and Benzema were arguably better than Ronaldo, at the very least, their end product was superior to what Ronaldo offered on that end. So when Ronaldo scores more goals than Messi, he is better than Messi, because he scores more goals than Messi, and goals are the most important thing. On the other hand, when Benzema scores 2 goals and Ronaldo scores 1 goal, Ronaldo still comes out as the savior, because Ronaldo scored THE winning goal where Benzema just scored the 2 goals that allowed for a winning goal to even be possible. When Di Maria scores 3 assists and Ronaldo scores 1 goal, Ronaldo still comes out as the savior, because Ronaldo scored THE winning goal where Di Maria merely assisted 3 out of the 4 goals that Real Madrid scored. Now think about how easy Messi would dominate a situation where he can pass the ball to a dribbler-assister like Di Maria, or to a world class goal scorer like Benzema (who was definitely better than David Villa was at this point in his career), or to do what Ronaldo could not do in 2012-13, which is to simply and directly run at defenders himself and score or assist a goal out of nothing like only Messi could do in his prime?? Meanwhile, Messi was the only reason why Barcelona even made it past AC Milan, not to mention that Vilanova dying of cancer was not exactly a stable situation to have as a coach, not to mention that David Villa was never ever the player that he had been pre-leg-break, not to mention that Xavi was a shadow of his former self, not to mention that Iniesta was more or less pointless (for whatever the reasons), not to mention that Alexis Sanchez was a disappointment, etc. Barcelona was deteriorating quickly and heavily, at the same time that Real Madrid became a better and better club, a concrete reference for Real Madrid's ascendancy would be Luka Modric, his first season with Real Madrid was 2012-13, and with the benefit of hindsight we can now say that Luka Modric is more or less (if not exactly) the equivalent to Xavi Hernandez... So when Messi was losing prime Xavi and also losing prime Iniesta, Ronaldo was getting Luka Modric in his prime, Ronaldo was getting Di Maria in his prime, Ronaldo had Benzema who was comprehensively superior to either David Villa or Alexis Sanchez, and yet Barcelona still finished above Real Madrid in La Liga 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2015-16, and 2017-18. How do you explain away that fact? Real Madrid had one of the all time great midfielders in prime Modric, with one of the all time great goal scorers in Ronaldo, and yet Real Madrid finished below Barcelona in 5 out of 6 seasons? I think that Messi 2012-13 was definitely better than Ronaldo was in the Champions League (same for La Liga), but of course being the propaganda extraordinaire that he is, Ronaldo gets credit for not delivering (proportionally to what should be expected given the amazing service he was getting) for a stacked Real Madrid side that at the time was heavily underrated, Real Madrid was good enough to eliminate Manchester United without much help from Ronaldo who only and exclusively finished off well assisted goals -- which, as the Group Stage had already demonstrated, is not enough to score more goals than Ajax scored vs. Manchester City... So if Ronaldo becoming the savior of Real Madrid wasn't enough to score more goals than Ajax, how could it possibly be enough to single-handedly elevate Real Madrid into being a better club than Manchester United?? It makes absolutely no sense even without looking at how Ronaldo scored those goals, but when you actually watch how Ronaldo scored those goals, it becomes even more absurd that Ronaldo was getting portrayed as THE rival to Messi when Ronaldo so often was not even the best player at his own club. To reiterate the point: Benzema scored 2 goals vs. Manchester City; Ronaldo scored 1 goal but ZERO assists vs. Manchester City; Di Maria scored 3 assists vs. Manchester City; Di Maria scored 1 assist vs. Manchester United; Ronaldo scored 2 goals vs. Manchester United -- so clearly Ronaldo was carrying that Real Madrid side, which is why Ronaldo won the Ballon d'Or even though Ronaldo in fact actually flopped at the Champions League and also failed to win La Liga... Yes, the power and divine providence of mind control, the manufacturing of consent, the brainwashing of the audience, is nothing short of mind blowing. Repeat a lie enough times, and the audience - particular the dumber side of that audience - will embrace it with a passion. Another fact... Real Madrid 2012-13 played in the same group as Borussia Dortmund (finished 25 points behind Bayern Munich in the league), as Manchester City (finished 11 points behind Manchester United in the league), as Ajax (a club that had no business competing against the other 3 but somehow still managed to finish above Manchester City). Real Madrid had far superior depth to all the other 3 clubs. Real Madrid would definitely if not easily win a two-horse-league against either one of Borussia Dortmund or Manchester City. But somehow, Real Madrid finished second in that group, and somehow, Cristiano Ronaldo was great for it. Question: When Rober Lewandowski directly outclassed Ronaldo in the Group Stage, in what was Ronaldo's only real test in the Group Stage? Somehow that actually works in favor of Ronaldo. Question: When Robert Lewandowski again thoroughly humiliated Ronaldo in the Semi Finals, in what was Ronaldo's only real rivalry in that KO stage? Somehow that had no effect on Ronaldo's arguments for the Ballon d'Or measure. Ronaldo 2013 was literally bullet proof... he was supposed to be perceived as a great regardless of how badly he actually flopped in the handful of games where Real Madrid was not bullying infinitely inferior opponents. This is when the propaganda game hit new heights. Furthermore, the voting date (for the Ballon d'Or) was even extended in 2013 just in case there was any remote chance that Ronaldo might rightfully be robbed of a price he didn't deserved in the first place... Ronaldo 2013 was essentially guaranteed the Ballon d'Or so long as Messi didn't win the CL, and ever since 2013, Ronaldo has been virtually bullet proof in what obviously was a concerted effort to artificially balance a fictional rivalry that was 4-1 before Ronaldo won the 2013 BDO for reasons that not even Ronaldo fans can explain. In conclusion: Messi came big in a game that Barcelona wouldn't have won, which was necessary to progress to the Quarter Finals. On the other hand, Lewandowski directly outclassed Ronaldo in the group stage, and Lewandowski also thoroughly humiliated Ronaldo in the Semi Finals, a game where Ronaldo was widely perceived as the biggest flop on the pitch... All things considered, Messi did better in more difficult conditions, and Messi v Bayern is literally pointless due to the fact that Messi was visibly unfit to play such a high level match, the lack of match fitness for such an occasion was readily palpable, and it is beyond me how Ronaldo fans continue using that game as a reference of Messi flopping on the big stage. Proper examples of flopping on the big stage is how a fully fit Ronaldo was thoroughly outclassed by Lewandowski (2013) and Cavani (2018). It is difficult to find such references for Messi, simply because Messi is a better player, simply because a fully fit Messi does not flop the way Ronaldo flopped in those two instances where he was supposed to be playing on the better teams. I appreciate your respectful tone for a change, but honestly, that's one of the most disingenuous arguments I've ever seen in a Messi v Ronaldo debate... Comparing Messi 2006/07 with Ronaldo 2006/07, is exactly as biased as comparing Ronaldo 2004/05 with Messi 2005/06. You're taking a club like Manchester United 2006-07, that is, a club that could win both the league and the Champions League with Robben instead of Ronaldo (basically without Ronaldo but with some other world class player filling that void, the same way Ronaldo was brought in to fill that void after David Beckham was sold to Real Madrid). So you're comparing Manchester United 2006-07 (a club on the ascendancy), with Barcelona 2006-07, that is, a club with Ronaldinho on a downward spiral, a club that had lost their hunger after their impressive 2005-06 season, a club that needed to be rebuilt almost from scratch for it to become competitive again, etc. In fact, Barcelona 2007-08 actually finished 3rd in La Liga, 18 points behind Real Madrid... Meanwhile, Manchester United 2007-08 had won both the league and the CL. At any rate, comparing Messi 2006/07 and Ronaldo 2006/07 as players who played for clubs that could actually win the Champions League, is just blatantly dishonest due to the self-evident fact that Ronaldo was playing for a much better club at that point in time, in addition to Messi being only 19 years old at the time. I will only count the years during which Messi and Ronaldo both played for clubs that could actually win the Champions League. 2008/09 -- Messi 2010/11 -- Messi 2011/12 -- Messi 2012/13 -- Messi 2013/14 -- Ronaldo 2014/15 -- Messi 2015/16 -- Ronaldo 2016/17 -- Ronaldo 2017/18 -- Ronaldo By my estimate, it is a 4-4 draw, but Messi is 2 years younger, not to mention that the difference in class has already been irrevocably resolved in La Liga and the World Cup. As for Ronaldo being the greatest CL player of all time, I think that Ronaldo is the greatest CL Group Stage goal scorer of all time, but again - and I cannot stress this enough - the Group Stage is largely if not entirely irrelevant in the era of the superclubs. The portion of the Champions League that actually matters, has not been dominated by Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo was a stat-padding passenger in 2014. Ronaldo only showed up vs. Wolfsburg - finished in 8th place of the Bundesliga - in 2016. Ronaldo only showed up vs. Juventus in 2018. Ronaldo had no big showings vs. big opposition in 2011 (looked impressive vs. Tottenham and vs. Lyon, but then was a total passenger vs. Barcelona). Ronaldo had in 2010 his only year - in his prime - where he actually played with a club that could not win the Champions League, but then again, in 2010 Ronaldo did basically nothing in the KO stage and was eliminated in the Round of 16. Obviously, if you jump ship at the right time from club to club, you are likely to have a greater number of deep runs in the Champions League. Ronaldo replaced David Beckham at the right time. Ronaldo also joined Real Madrid at the right time, certainly a much better time than at any point between 2004 and 2008. On the other hand, when a player stays at the same club all his life, that player will inevitably experience periods of lows and periods of highs. This can be seen with Messi, Xavi, Maldini, Del Piero -- all the one club legends had to endure low points at some stage in their respective careers. So maybe Ronaldo is in a sense the greatest CL legend to date, but purely in the sense that he joined clubs on the ascendancy, for example, Manchester United played CL Finals in 2009 and 2011, their most successful run of CL success, which in a sense continued without Ronaldo and - I cannot stress this enough - even though Ronaldo was not actually replaced by some transfer breaking summer signing such as Messi or Kaka or some other name that might fit that criteria (relative to that specific year in time). Ronaldo did not dominated the 2008-09 Premier League season, this has been repeatedly noted and demonstrated by numerous posters across the years, including PuckVanHeel who is not exactly in Messi's camp nor in Ronaldo's camp. Actually, the mere fact that Ryan Giggs - a player in the same club as Ronaldo - won the Players' Player of the Year recognition, should be sufficient evidence to know that Ronaldo did not dominated the Premier League in 2009 nor in the latter portion of 2008. Not to mention that Steven Gerrard was also recognized as better than Ronaldo was in the 2006-07, as indicated by the Fans' Player of the Year award and also by the Football Writers' Association Footballer of the Year award. Furthermore, Ronaldo also did not quite dominated the 2006-07 season, as far as I know of. So overall, as far as Ronaldo dominating in England 2007-2009, it's more like two seasons (2006-07 and 2007-08) of relative dominance, followed by a rather notable decline in form in 2008-09. 2005/06 -- Messi. 2006/07 -- Ronaldo. 2007/08 -- Ronaldo. 2008/09 -- Messi. 2009/10 -- Messi. 2010/11 -- Messi. 2011/12 -- impossible to pick one probably. 2012/13 -- impossible to pick one probably. 2013/14 -- Messi. 2014/15 -- Messi. 2015/16 -- Messi. 2016/17 -- Messi. 2017/18 -- Messi. At league level, it's not even close in my opinion. Not sure if I agree that Ronaldo is THAT high on the all time list (albeit he will be remembered as a top 5 all timer), but I strongly agree that the difference between the greatest players in history is actually a lot smaller than the average fan would assume. Mbappe vs. Argentina was better than Messi vs. France (that's an obvious given), but the fact is that both players were very clearly good in that game, with the main difference being that Argentina's tactics suited Mbappe like an expensive tuxedo, whereas France's tactics were impressive in how difficult it made life for the top players of the tournament. How much better was Hazard vs. France compared to Messi vs. France?? Not all that better even though Hazard was playing in a better team, in fact, Messi registered 2 assists, and even the accidental assist was technically a great assist had it been intentional, but at any rate, Messi's end product vs. France looks very good in hindsight, that is, after having witnessed what both Hazard and Modric delivered vs. France. Messi doesn't look much inferior if at all, playing for a comprehensively inferior national side. In sharp contrast, Cavani was great and Ronaldo was horrible i.e. Cavani wiped the floor with Ronaldo. I totally expected the opposite outcome i.e. that Ronaldo would wipe the floor with both Cavani and Suarez, but surprise surprise… At any rate, Ronaldo totally flopped in a game where he was widely expected to be playing for the better team (Portugal was widely considered a better team than Uruguay), in a game where he was expected to demonstrate his superiority over both Cavani and Suarez. And for the record: Suarez was also comprehensively superior to Ronaldo... I honestly can't think of Messi ever having flopped so badly at a World Cup in a game that was evenly balanced, in fact, in a game where Messi was supposed to be on the better side. (Preemptive declaration: Argentina v Germany 2014 was not an evenly balanced game, Germany was the big favorite after having humiliated Brazil, and Argentina was the lesser team after not having convinced against any of their opponents.) Ronaldo's performance vs. Juventus was great, but the assist is just another exaggerated statistic... I mean, Marceloa did all the difficult work, Roanldo's short side-pass was and would be extremely easy for any world class player. Great performance, but in my opinion, not a class above Mbappe's performance vs. Argentina. Moreover, and I can't stress this enough... Argentina's defense is said to have made Mbappe look good, but Juve's defense also did a remarkable job in terms of making Ronaldo look good. Ronaldo's 1-0 goal was the result of horrible defending, it was a good goal don't get me wrong, but it was also definitely the type of goal that was easy to nullify had Juve's two central defenders not naively closed down Benzema therefore leaving Ronaldo free to score from very close range. Ronaldo's 2-0 goal was amazing, but again, that goal does not happen without Chiellini's misplaced pass to Buffon, which was the pass that assisted the whole sequence of events that assisted Ronaldo's bicycle kick. Marcelo's 3-0 goal was, again, horrible defending by Juve… Marcelo single-handedly disrupted Juve's entire defense, which should never happen no matter how skillful Marcelo is. And Ronaldo then failed to score a sitter from point blank range, in what was again lazy and slow and horrible defending by Juventus. The fact that Juve's disastrous defense is disregarded or not even acknowledged, just continues to blow my mind, because it really was atrocious defending and it clearly did magnified Ronaldo's form on that night.
Basically this is a clever response of saying you were talking bs and hoping everyone will jump on bandwagon as usual. You are even getting emotional on a mere description of plays to show that your initial statement can't be supported by facts!!! Nobody said Uruguay didn't work hard or goals don't result because of opponents' mistakes, you are just deflecting.
Lying to you comes so naturally you probably even believe your own lies. Just go back and show any person here raving about Ronaldo's goal that resulted from DDG's blunder, just ONE POSTER. Focusing on Pepe's error is just an excuse to conflate issues. The reason that 'Pepe's error' came about was to explain the two significant plays that according to some here make Cavani's performance the best in this WC, the same way as how I described the first goal which was started by Cavani. For some odd reason it feels like some people don't want it to be mentioned that Pepe committed an error that led to that situation and a great finish by Cavani. Btw the way I expect any decent striker to score that header if they've put themselves in that position, it is great that he made a long pass and continued his run but the finish was basic.
Well... silence is all your ridiculous question deserves in the form of an answer, except in this instance the silence is not quite the result of you silencing your critics because of how irrefutable you are, instead the silence is ironic given the inherent self-evident nature of the obvious answer. And the worst part about your unironic rhetorical question/posturing, it is that you are a Ronaldo fan, so you are exactly the type of fan who should be over the moon about 2 excellent goals AND an amazing defensive performance from a striker who quite possibly did the best defensive job (and effort) I have ever witnessed from ANY striker in ANY competition. So silence... Silence might be the most apt answer to your self-evident delusional state of only ever rating goals when Ronaldo scores 3 flukes against Wolfsburg. AMAZING when Ronaldo does it. OVERRATED when Cavani delivers a much better performance. At any rate, your understanding of this sport is really quite poor a lot of the time, I mean you get away with it almost exclusively because Real Madrid gets lucky all the time, but any half-decent observer can readily grasp that your analysis is very shallow and very results-driven, and that the moment those results dry up you end up sounding like a person who doesn't actually watches the games but rather reads the statistics/results. Honestly, you do not even actually properly understand Ronaldo's role and value as a player, so you should not be thought of as capable of reasonably understanding and ergo rating the performances by players not Ronaldo. Your predictions at the beginning of the World Cup are a classic case in point of just how limited and unoriginal your views are about this sport. Wrong. But what a nice cliché for you to agree with. Wrong. The way to knock them out was by witnessing how Cavani absolutely wiped the floor with Ronaldo's and Portugal's respective scalps, no extra-time required, in fact, Cavani actually did all that in the first 70 minutes before he got injured. Wrong. Wrong. And definitely wrong. France was not poor, just not entertaining and saving themselves (e.g. like Ronaldo likes to do in La Liga) for the more important stage of the competition. Brazil was more times than not scintillating to watch even with their inefficient finishing, the last 3 games by Brazil are games that were very fun to watch in my opinion. And Belgium definitely made it far with one of the greatest modern performances by Eden Hazard. Wrong. Germany finished dead last in a group that consisted of Sweden, Mexico, South Korea, and Germany, in that order. After Germany's second game I was already convinced that Germany was definitely not going to win the World Cup, was going to go out in the Round of 16 or in the Quarter Finals or maybe even in the Group Stage if they didn't improved (which they didn't do). That's the difference between watching games and analyzing the potential outcomes on the basis of what actually happens on the pitch, as opposed to analyzing the potential outcomes on the basis of how great Germany is supposed to be at least on paper, which is why you expected them to step up in the KO stage even though they never showed signs of being in top form or anything even remotely close to it. Wrong. Spain played average at best, maybe even below average given their talent. Moreover, Spain looked very good (for spells but never consistently) vs. Portugal, but as we now know Portugal was arguably not competitive enough to actually measure what "good" means in any remotely realistic context. Same as Spain for that matter. At any rate, Spain only looked good vs. Portugal, Spain looked out of sorts against all the other teams not Portugal, and honestly, I think that Spain was lucky to even qualify to the KO stage. Subpar defense with an aimless offense. Technically wrong, albeit not as thoroughly wrong as your other safer predictions. I mean, Mexico did delivered above what was expected of them vs. Germany and vs. Brazil. Wrong, but again, a very safe and unoriginal prediction. Note to self: The World Cup is not as predictable as the Champions League. Out of your 10 predictions, you managed to get 7 of them wrong. Furthermore, Croatia and Belgium were easy predictions, but you missed them, in fact you didn't even mentioned them, because I assume those nations aren't big enough to get your attention, which is why your predictions were 7 out of 10 wrong.
these two are simply not mistakes of the same magnitude, how do you not see that? And that finish is at least 66:33 in favor of missing it, for a world class striker.. it's not a tap in of any sort.
You are twisting things. I am replying to the guy who seems to rather highlight the Pepe’s mistake and made it sound like Cavani had an Open goal tap in.
I know you are crazy but I didn't realize you've reached this level. You take the comment I made on my overall impression of the WC after the first round and use hindsight to critique what I said then!!! Even people in mental institutions surely won't go this low. But just to humour you; 1. That 3-3 Spain vs. Portugal game was considered by many as the best game of the tournament after first round. Spain played really good but Portugal somehow managed to draw that game. I'm still not sure why I bother but I'll continue. 2. Portugal lost 2-1 in a very tight game, and part of the reason for that loss was a combination of a clear mistake from Pepe and world class finish from Cavani. My prediction was that they might only lose via penalties and even in that game Rui Patricio did very little and Portugal looked good for a sneaky win or draw. 3. Belgium 1st half performance of their first game with Panama was poor as per my assessment, and if they were to play that way there was no way in hell they could make the semis. 4. Predicting Germany or Brasil win after the first round of games is better than saying nothing and acting clever once the WC is finished, and that prediction had nothing to do with going with the crowd as Brasil looked much better than in the last couple of world cups, and Germany just knows how to win games. 5. Anyone who watched France vs Australia know that they were poor not boring, any assessment is nonsense. Just because they ended up winning the WC doesn't mean after watching their first game one would have assessed it with some hindsight. Actually this whole response is just unnecessary.
True, Martinez after the game vs Japan come up, on a fly, with a completely new system, that he hasnt tested in neither friendly or qualifiers.. it could have easily been a big miss, they were disfunctional till Brazil game. I still believe Brazil is the best team and would have won WC if it was in a league format, France is bad at having posession and dominating the match (showed that in qualifiers as well as friendlies, that's why i thought they aint going to win despite the talent), and that's why mid tournament Deschamps completely abandoned possesion and started focusing soley on counter attacks and he deserves more credit for that than he gets.
Ronaldo was very impressive (out of stats) against Manchester City something you would've realised if you had watched the game.at the time Vincent kompany was arguably the best defender or joint best defender with Thiago silva and he simply could not live with ronaldo over both legs 0:31-0:41 dribbles past kompany and takes a long distance shot that is off target 0:59-1:13 dribbles past kompany in the box and takes a shot that is saved by hart 1:19:1:30 cuts in a defender and unleashes a fearsome shot from 18 yards that deflects of a player but is dealt with by the keeper 2:04-2:20 does a sombrero on nasri and takes a shot on the edge of the box that is blocked by defenders but somehow finds its way to khedira who misses a very easy finish 6:00-6:14 dribbles past Maicon on the flank then past kompany who fouls him 6:40-6:50 takes a shot from the edge of the box that is saved by hart 7:00-7:06 dribbles past zabeleta and scores a 90th minute winner(a solo goal)to ensure Real Madrid progress to the knockout stage His away performance was arguably even more impressive 1:41-1:55 initiates a possible counter attack but is immediately fouled by zabeleta 2:05-2:25 recieves a pass in the midfield dribbles past zabeleta and continues his run to the flank does a few stepovers and releases a low cross to khedira who misses a relatively easy opportunity 2:34-2:55 dribbles past kompany on the flank and then continues to bambozle him with a few tricks and then makes a cross to khedira in the box (who again should've scored) 3:00-3:07 recieves a pass from the midfield from who appears to be alonso,runs in to the box and lobs Joe hart who is saved by a goal line clearance by a defender 3:49-4:00 plays a one two pass to Luca modric then dribbles past yaya toure who fouls him 4:45-4:51 provides an accurate lofted cross to khedira who again (third time) misses from fairly close 5:11-5:16 picks up the ball near the half way line runs a little bit and unleashes a powerful shot that hart cannot save properly and is again saved by his defence 6:41-7:00 recieves a pass in his own half and runs directly through the heart of Manchester City's defence,surrounded by 4 players he successfully dribbles past one,kicks the ball past kompany who then fouls him (the only possible way he could've dealt with ronaldo) Ronaldo was creating opportunities for himself (out of nothing)and for his teammates .he was not the beneficiary of any Real madrids supposed midfield dominance(over both legs) Over both legs he created CLEAR goal scoring chances,completed many dribbles and many shots (on target) from all sorts of distances All in all a VERY good performance by him In addition to this he scored a hattrick away at ajax (including a tapin,a lob and a 20+ yard curling shot) He was solid against Dortmund in the groupstage and also very good against galatasary(admittedly a minnow) He scored 12 goals (1assist)to messi's 8 and he only scored 1 penalty For what it's worth messi was clearly head and shoulders above ronaldo in the first half of the 2012/13 season but from January till the end of the season the advantage imo goes to ronaldo who was phenomenal.ronaldo continued his form into the first half of 2013/14 while messi suffered from injuries and that is the reason I believe ronaldo was a deserving winner 2012/13 was ronaldo's last season as a winger/forward hybrid (i.e. A player who is still heavily involved in build up play,still dribbling in addition to scoring 50+ goals a season) arguably the most underrated season in his entire career. Note C.Ronaldo is not the greatest group stage goalscorer of all time that accolade in fact goes to a certain Lionel messi.your facts are wrong as per usual These are some of his champions league records Only player to score in all group stage matches in a single Champions League season (2017/18) Only player to have scored 15+ goals in the Champions League in a calendar year (did it 3 times: 2013, 2015, 2017) Most UEFA Best Player Awards: 3 Most Champions League top scorer awards: 7 Only player to finish Champions League top scorer in 6 consecutive seasons (2012/13 - 2017/18) Most goals scored in UEFA Champions League knockout phase: 60 goals Most goals scored against a single opponent in the Champions League 10 goals against Juventus Only player to score back-to-back hat-tricks in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League (Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid in 2017) First player to score 50+ goals in the UEFA Champions League knockout stage First player to score 40+ goals in the UEFA Champions League knockout stage First player to score 100 goals in the UEFA Champions League First player to score 100 goals in European competition (97 UCL goals, 1 UCL qualifier goal, 2 UEFA Super Cup goals when record was achieved) Most quarter-final goals in the UEFA Champions League: 20 goals Most hat-tricks in UEFA Champions League: 7 hat-tricks (shared with Lionel Messi) Most hat-tricks in a single Champions League season: 3 hat-tricks in 2015/16 Most free kicks scored in UEFA Champions League: 12 free kick goals Most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League semi-finals: 13 goals Most consecutive appearances in the UEFA Team of the Year: 10 consecutive times (2007-2016) Most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League group stage in a single season: 11 goals Most UEFA Champions League goals scored in a calendar year: 19 goals in 2017 First player to ever score at least 10 goals in five Champions League seasons (did it consecutively) First player to ever score at least 10 goals in six Champions League seasons (did it consecutively) First player to ever score at least 10 goals in seven Champions League seasons (did it consecutively) Most hat-tricks in the group stage in a single Champions League season: 2 hat-tricks (shared with Luiz Adriano and Lionel Messi) Most braces in Champions League history: 29 braces Most goals scored in Champions League history: 120 goals Most penalties scored in Champions League history: 15 penalties Most goals scored in a European Cup season: 17 goals (2013/14) Most consecutive UEFA Champions League matches scored in: 11 matches First footballer in the history of the European Cup to score for two different winning teams Most headed goals scored in the UEFA Champions League: 20 goals Most consecutive wins in the UEFA Champions League: 14 wins Most assists in champions league history:36 assists The only champions league record ronaldo doesn't hold is scoring 5 in a single match(but Louis Adriano also equalled that record vs Basel I think) Ronaldo dominates the champions league in scoring to an unprecedented level (i.e. No one in football history has dominated an elite competition in terms of breaking and resetting records like ronaldo has) Ronaldo is only competing against himself at this stage of his career(there are no more records to break) And he is right that when he retires they should rename the competition after him in the same way they named the puskas goal award after ferenc puskas for being voted the greatest goalscorer of the 20th century (beating of competition by pele and muller)
are you kidding me? he doesnt even have the best goal per game ratio in ucl history, how is that a domination of any sort? More than half of those records hold no value whatsoever and some are not even impressive feats and quite counter productive for you, like most penalties. It's funny because when Ronaldo plays good (or something perceived as good overall) you zoom in to the tiniest detail explaining why that is so and you get into end-product-is-not-all-there-is mode, when that's inconvenient for your beliefs (which is often), you zoom out and hide behing pointless stats and records saying that, at the end of the day, an end product is all there matters, goals-wins-you-match mode. Again you are manipulating with facts, is it possible that you are that biased that you are doing it unconsciously. You remind of those youtube commentators that just master their biased arguments and hope it sticks. The truth is that Ronaldo (the greatest ucl player off all time, according to you) is yet to have an ucl season comparable to either Messi's 2011 or 2015 campaign (here come goals story) and that Messi, playing infinitely deeper role on the pitch throughout his whole career, has a better gpr. You do realize that, dont you? Of course you dont... at the end Ronaldo could quite possibly not end up as the top scorer, which would be a one big irony! Ronaldo is just one very lucky player to have some things going in his favor at the right time... and i find it funny how you called that "a solo goal" lool.
OK. I thought I saw you saying 'some people were raving about Ronaldo's DDG's goal vs. Spain' if you didn't that's fine. Anyway irrespective of how you feel Cavani had an open goal (it definitely wasn't a tap in) but it was an open goal which was finished with aplomb. Imo only top tier strikers had a chance of that finish.
The 2nd goal was an open goal ? I mean, the GK is badly positioned, IMO too close to the near post, but that's not an open goal. We must have different definitions of open goal.
The prediction was not a difficult one - maybe even an easy one - but yeah, it appears to be in the process of becoming a reality. http://www.goal.com/en/news/transfe...-agree-190m-hazard/1a46ntca3d7j61ax389l9np1zw Also, Real Madrid will not be breaking the transfer record on Hazard, but the €190 that Real Madrid will pay for Hazard (as per the reports) are very close to the €222 that PSG paid for Neymar.
True loyal Madridistas must be really devastated. They must secretly wish that their club had Messi instead of Ronaldo for the simple fact that Messi would have stayed at their club, god forbid their talisman leaving after back-to-back-to-back CL titles. For Ronaldo to make that statement he did right after the final finished shows that he is all about himself and has zero respect for the Real Madrid organization. He thinks of every team he plays with as a platform for himself. He's about himself and he's always been. He even pouts when teammates score. The funniest logic CR fans have is saying that moving from one place to another and proving yourself on "another team" means something. Guess what Messi is on another team now compared to 5 years ago and compared to 10 years. The name of the jersey says Barcelona FC and some of the names of his teammates are the same but his team is dramatically different than even a few years ago. It's probably the worst sports argument I've ever heard because Messi has indeed provenhimself on many teams regardless if the name on the front of the jersey is the same. If you're building a squad, you always pick the guys who is a loyal period. At the end of the day, the real question might be do I want 9 years of Ronaldo or 14 years of Messi. Geeee difficult to answer that one...
Proved in 4 different systems to be exact.. rijkaard, guardiola, enrique and now valverde. All of them established different tactics, with different players and Messi excelled in every one of them and will continue to do so, i predict one more manager in years to come under which Messi will prove himself again.. Thats all without counting any period of his international football So yeah, that argument makes no sense whatsoever.
The reason I say it was open goal is based on the fact that Cavani had no any other thing to do but to shoot at the goals, this doesn't mean it was easy but when a striker gets a through pass he has an open goal opportunity. The only thing that he needed to do was to beat the keeper as there was no defender distracting him, and he did that with aplomb.
I'm with celito on this one. How in the world is a 1 on 1 with the keeper an open goal??? If that's an open goal then what do you call a chance where the goal keeper is not even in a position to save a shot??? You say an open goal is when someone else has nothing else to do but shoot at goal?? That must be practically 90% of goals. Basically you are saying anytime a player takes a direct shot at goal then it is an open goal. by that conclusion a goal like zidanes champions league goal in the 2001 final would be an open goal because he had nothing else to do but shoot the ball. Or even the champions league volley that Ronaldo scored against Atlético Madrid in the 17-18 semi final at home. You are acting as if cavani's finish was a routine finish, When players far often miss chances with much less difficulty.
1 on 1 with a goal keeper is an open goal based on the fact that the striker has higher probability of scoring than the keeper saving the goal, it might not be the same probability of kicking a penalty but it is an open goal opportunity. If you feel Zidane's goal was one on one opportunity (emphasis on 1 on 1 with the keeper) this conversation is pointless, I don't even know how you got to that comparison. Explanation of Cavani's shot got nothing to do with direct shot bu the fact that he was 1 on 1 with the keeper!!! Unless you think that Cristiano's goal against Porto explains your twisted understanding of what is being said here, or his thousand speculative shots that never resulted into goals. You must be on drugs or just looking for likes from your mob if you somehow manage to equate "finishing with aplomb" as equivalent to routine finish. Sometimes it feels like one is having a discussion with school kids here.