Cristiano Ronaldo's only goal in this Saturday's Clásico was from the penalty spot and he did not directly assist either of Real Madrid's other goals, so he's not drawing the same kind of plaudits as his teammates are for their impressive 3-1 win over Barcelona.
The casual, understated side of Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliance
Isco, Karim Benzema and James Rodriguez are drawing more praise than usual for their performances against Barcelona, but Cristiano Ronaldo was as fantastic as ever.
One of his teammates who has been popularly declared a man of the match candidate is Isco, who was very good. He was singled out for praise because of his effort on Madrid’s third goal, in which he beat two defenders and started a counter attack by himself.
But as quickly as he started that counter, Isco almost killed the attack singlehandedly. It was only revived by the brilliance of Ronaldo.
He.,re's the middle of that break, after Isco had surged by Andres Iniesta and Javier Mascherano.
For a player of Isco's quality, this is a simple pass. Ronaldo has a step on his defender, is goal side of him, and Barcelona keeper Claudio Bravo isn't running off his line yet. Isco has a huge margin for error here. A perfectly average pass will send Ronaldo one-on-one with the keeper and probably lead to a goal.
Look at what Isco did instead.
Oh wow, that’s not even close to where it should be, and this pass was hit with absolutely no pace. Ronaldo couldn’t even run at the goal after receiving it. It was so poor that there were three defenders between Ronaldo and the goal before he secured the ball.
There are attacking players making runs up the left flank for Los Merengues, but this isn’t even a terribly dangerous position for Barcelona. They have enough men back in position to force Madrid to take a low-quality shot or turn around to keep the ball. Instead, they create a goal. Watch how they do it.
That's a wonderful through ball by James Rodriguez and an even better run and finish by Karim Benzema, but it was only possible because of the turn and quick pass Ronaldo made. The pass Isco made would have destroyed that attack if the player it fell to was anyone other than Cristiano Ronaldo, and the work he did to keep it moving was incredible.
Even when he doesn’t score from open play or record an assist, Ronaldo is Madrid’s most important player. This is why.
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