VIDEO: You can’t not give it! Cristiano Ronaldo misses empty net from close range

Cristiano Ronaldo equals goals. The Portuguese machine has the most in history, but even a master carpenter makes mistakes sometimes. In the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League, he threw away a huge chance when he missed an uncovered goal from a metre out.

Head in hands, a gesture of frustration. You don’t see Cristiano Ronaldo in that situation very often. In his career, he has raised his hands above his head on more than 870 occasions, making almost no mistakes on clear-cut chances.

But even that can happen sometimes. In the quarter-finals of the Asian Champions League, Al-Nassr faced Al-Ain from the Emirates, losing 0-1 away. Ronaldo and co. promised a great comeback, which came, but failed to follow through.

The game started horribly for the home side, they were already down 0:2 in the 45th minute and needed to score 3 goals to go into extra time. But Ghareeb reduced the deficit in the first half and scored his own goal immediately after the change of sides. In the 72nd minute, Alex Telles scored Al-Nassr’s third goal and it went to extra time.

In it, Yahya saw the home side red carded in the 98th minute, and five minutes later a second penalty came when Al Shamsi sent Al Ain into the overall lead. Cristiano Ronaldo had a chance to level the scores again in the 107th minute, only for something unexpected to happen.

After a centre by Mané, Otavio finished, but his attempt was only parried by the goalkeeper to Ronaldo in the small area. The Portuguese finished a metre from a completely open goal as Khalid Eisa was on the ground. But Ronaldo missed the goal and scored one of the worst “fails” of his career.

A season without a trophy for Ronaldo

He did get a chance to redeem himself in the 118th minute when the referee called a penalty. Ronaldo converted it and it went to a penalty shootout. Only there, Ronaldo’s star teammates failed again. Brohovic, Telles and Otavio did not open the net from the spot and Ronaldo’s successful attempt was not enough against three Al Ain shots.

Al-Nassr will thus probably be without a major trophy this season after dropping out of the Champions League, as they are already 12 points behind sovereign Al Hilal in the league with nine rounds to go.

Source: X, Asian Champions League