Champions League
Cristiano Ronaldo, the nightmare of Diego Simeone and Atlético Madrid. Recall how he destroyed them last time
There is no player in the world that Diego Simeone and the whole of Atlético Madrid fear more. Cristiano Ronaldo has destroyed the dreams of the Colchoneros like a treadmill in the past. “He has brought us a lot of pain, we know what he is like,” striker Ángel Correa is not hiding his fears.
There is no player in the world that Diego Simeone and the entire Atlético Madrid squad fear more. Cristiano Ronaldo has destroyed the dreams of the Colchoneros like a treadmill in the past. “He has brought us a lot of pain, we know what he is like,” striker Ángel Correa is not hiding his fears.
When Cristiano Ronaldo was at Real Madrid, Atlético was his city rival. But in “El Derbi Madrileño”, the Portuguese phenomenon revelled. Almost everything has this statistic included. Since Diego Simeone took over in 2011, Atleti have only had to watch an opposing team score a hat-trick four times… And each time it was Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese phenomenon has the most wins in his career against Atlético Madrid. He has beaten the Rojiblancos on 17 occasions, drawn nine times and lost nine times. In 35 games, he has 25 goals and 9 assists.
Ronaldo scored against Atlético in the 2014 Champions League final, in 2016 he converted the decisive penalty in the shootout at the same stage. A year later, he saw Atleti out of the millionaire competition with a hat-trick in the semi-finals.
But the greatest demonstration of Ronaldo’s obsession with Atlético came at Juventus. The Old Lady came away from Madrid with a 0:2 defeat and the Colchoneros, buoyed by the fact that Ronaldo no longer had the Real Madrid superteam around him, were convinced it was all over.
“ This is football. I have five Champions League titles. Atlético 0. We’ll see in the rematch.” But Atlético fans didn’t like that.
“Cristiano, 5 what? Take your five and go to sleep,” laughed an Atlético fan. “Cry, cry, go to Turin and cry. 2:0, it’s over, ” said another.
But Ronaldo was sure big things would happen in the rematch. And as he said, he did. He delivered a superhuman performance at Juventus Stadium, knocking Atlético out of the Champions League with a hat-trick. For the umpteenth time. What’s more, he repeated Simeone’s gesture from the first game, as a sign that he has big balls.
Ronaldo hasn’t met Atlético since then, now comes another confrontation. However, this one doesn’t look good for the Colchoneros at all.
Simeone’s Atlético have met Ronaldo five times in the knockout stages of the Champions League. Each time it was eliminated and Ronaldo additionally scored or assisted in each double.
“If it wasn’t for Cristiano Ronaldo, I would have already won the Champions League 3 times with Atlético,” Diego Simeone complained.
Manchester United are struggling, but Ronaldo should never be underestimated, especially against Atlético. The Rojiblancos have already made that mistake once and they certainly won’t want to make it again.
Source: UEFA, Twitter