Champions League: Ruthless Ronaldo dismisses Atletico’s challenge effortlessly

On a night of hysterical and manic Real Madrid gallery play, uber-star Cristiano Ronaldo destroyed local rivals Atletico Madrid with a brilliant hat-trick in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy. CR7 proved once again that he is the ultimate striker. A miracle apart, his team will play the Champions League final in June, reaffirming Madrid’s unique relationship with the European competition. Atletico Madrid yet again faltered against their nemesis.

Here are the three talking points of the match:

Ronaldo, the ultimate striker

In the pantheon of the footballing gods, anno 2017, there is Lionel Messi and then Ronaldo, or perhaps it is Ronaldo and then Messi. Even as the world tilts towards the Messi-anic, Ronaldo proffers - and never desists from offering - infinite supershows. The Portuguese star, a futuristic super-athlete from a parallel universe, chaperoned his famed merengue team to the final in Cardiff with a superlative hat-trick, a bamboozling feat of professional self-betterment.

On Wednesday, Ronaldo demonstrated again why he is a part of the great duopoly of our time, one that will soon belong to a gilded past of mazy runs, eccentric goals and transcendental nights across Spain and the Old Continent.

As Messi nears his 30th birthday the Argentinean has struggled to exert his allround influence at Barcelona, no longer possessing that perpetual movement. At 32, Ronaldo is undeterred by age and other mortal considerations. He has become a number nine, almost a full-blooded one in the Lewandowski-mould, a genuine old-fashioned striker, a rare breed in today’s modern game, with Ronaldo’s conversion, a slow and creaking process, proving utterly successful.

That’s what great players do - reinvent themselves when the circumstances require so. Ronaldo, the ultimate alpha male, faced with his own fading athleticism and dwindling six-pack masculinity, decided he needed to play closer to the penalty box, and so, slowly, at times hesitantly and not without scrutiny, he drifted towards the box. Ageing players tend to drop deeper, but the kid from Madeira crooned about self-improvement and upward mobility, unprecedented in the game.

Yesterday, in the 10th minute, Ronaldo pounced with a quintessential striker’s goal: in a central position in the box, with little space he powered a header past Jan Oblak. Ronaldo’s poise and timing were immaculate, as they would be in the 73rd and 86th minute too.

In the quarter-finals the Portuguese had single-handedly tamed Bayern Munich with three goals and on Wednesday, he disqualified and even ridiculed his city rivals, again with three goals. In total, Ronaldo has scored 103 in the European Cup, more than Atletico Madrid has as a team.

Madrid’s collective cohesion 

Madrid buttressed Ronaldo’s superlative performance with a gala night of collective dynamism, creativity and pace. Toni Kroos and Luka Modric dropped deep, almost alongside the authoritative Casemiro, who gave Madrid’s midfield so much balance. Kroos registered 43 successful passes (out of 45) in the first stanza. Yannick Carrasco and Saul Niguez failed to pick up Modric’s runs. In truth, Atletico had no one to mark Madrid’s two number 8’s.

The delirious CR7 show apart, it was Isco who excelled, replacing the injured Gareth Bale in the BBC trident. He was Madrid’s MVP. The floating Spaniard was everywhere, a cerebral presence, who connected the dots and Madrid’s entire game. In the first half he didn’t misplace a single of his 42 passes. When he did, just after the hour mark, Zidane decided to substitute him. Isco received a standing ovation.

Ostensibly Isco played in the front three but he dropped much deeper, allowing CR7 to play as support striker for Karin Benzema before he turned into a ruthless penalty area striker. And so with Cardiff looming, Madrid at long last gelled. This was not the disjointed outfit that has so puzzled at times, but a cohesive collective who played as the sum of their parts and more. This was Madrid was suave.

The eternal bridesmaids 

Perhaps Real’s greatness was also a measure of Atletico’s incompetence. They played at the level of a Tyneside derby, not a Champions League semi-finals. Back in 1974, Bayern Munich’s dramatic defeat of Atletico Madrid in the European Cup final prompted Vicente Calderon to coin the term ‘El pupas’ - the jinxed one. It’s an identity that Atletico have carried with them ever since.

At the Bernabeu Stadium, Atletico began with their high lateral press, quick ball retention and forward intentions, but that lasted for just ten minutes. Simeone’s team were rattled by Ronaldo and a flow of overwhelming merengue dominance. They showed little of their famed winning mentality and the footballing culture that Simeone has so harnessed at the club. The intensity, attitude and aptitude, it was all gone. So were the physical fitness and that self-confidence. Atletico were simply not a tidal wave of self-belief.

They were rattled, passive and without resilience. Atletico’s players didn’t chase and pester their opponents with their customary aggression. In the final third, Antoine Griezmann was peripheral and isolated. Koke and Yannick Carrasco offered too little from the wings. This was not how they had planned it and so, even in the Simeone era, Atletico remain jinxed. Atletico’s identity was formed around the European Cup, but for all the wrong reasons as was in evidence again at the Bernabeu.