11.04.2012 » Atletico Madrid 1-4 Real Madrid. A Ronaldo show at the Calderon
Cristiano Ronaldo rescued Real Madrid at the Vicente Calderón this Wednesday night, with an outstanding hat-trick that allowed the Merengues to get past Atletico Madrid by 1-4. However, those who may have missed the game and simply look at the final score, can very well get the wrong idea that Real Madrid had an easy task in bringing the 3 points home. Aletico's coach, Diego Simeone, presented a strong and fighting side, which has only been beaten due to an impressive performance from Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese phenomenon added 3 goals and 1 assist to his count and leads once again La Liga Pichichi standings, with 40 goals out of 32 games! Barça's Lionel Messi was left behind in 2nd place, having scored 39 goals so far.
Cristiano Ronaldo game photos in Atletico Madrid vs Real Madrid
Atletico Madrid 1-4 Real Madrid highlights:
Cristiano Ronaldo vs Atletico Madrid:
Last night's game being held at the Vicente Calderón, was seen by many as a critical one for Real Madrid, in their road for La Liga's title this season. With Barcelona putting additional pressure after winning this Tuesday's game against Getafe by 4-0, the gap was suddendly cut to a single point and all this happening just 10 days before the "Clasico" in the Camp Nou. The occasion was calling for heroes and men of character to step up and that's what we've all witnessed last night. Cristiano Ronaldo managed to excel expectations, by scoring an hat-trick (his first since the 12th of February, in a 4-2 win against Levante) and assisting Callejón for his team's final goal. Moreover, Ronaldo goals included a trademark tomahawk free-kick, a beautiful long-range shot and a penalty-kick, which are once again, a great example of how versatile the Portuguese player really is.
The first goal took place near the 25th minute and who else but Cristiano Ronaldo to score the opener. The free-kick was ruled close to 30 meters away from goal, certainly a distance that might discourage most free-kick specialists this game has already seen. As for Ronaldo and when he manages to hit the target, it's almost like half penalty. The Portuguese star applied one of his tradermark tomahawks and Courtois couldn't even dive to the ball, as he got completely fooled and deceived by the ball's trajectory. Real Madrid had taken the lead, but wasn't necessarily on top of Atletico during that stage of the game.
Half-time reached with a 1 goal advantage for Real Madrid and surely the feeling that things were about to get more complicated in the 2nd half, if they failed to extend the lead. That was precisely what happened, as Atletico Madrid got the equalizer around the 55th minute of the game, inevitably by Radamel Falcao and from a good header already inside Real Madrid's penalty area.
The Merengues reaction took some time as it has never been easy to breach into Atletico Madrid's back line. Despite all difficulties, Real Madrid retook the lead and it had to be the club's best player, Cristiano Ronaldo, to point the way once again. It all happened near the 68th minute, when Ronaldo received a ball on the left and cutted inside, just before striking a powerful dip shot. Similarly to the 1st goal, and even though Courtouis is 1,94m, he couldn't stop the ball from getting in. The crowd at the Vicente Calderón was starting to be aware of the one-man-show performance from CR7 this Wednesday night.
Atletico didn't exactly gave up after Real Madrid scored their second goal of the night and increased the pace in the following minutes by really forcing Real Madrid to struggle, in order to keep the lead. The reaction lasted a few minutes, until Sorín pushed Gonzalo Higuaín on his back, already inside Atletico's penalty area. Cristiano Ronaldo assumed the responsability and didn't shake at all, completing his hat-trick, as well as his 40th goal in La Liga this season and his 52nd when accounting for all competitions.
There would still be enough time for Real Madrid's 4th goal this Wednesday night, not from Ronaldo though, but from Callejón. The Portuguese player didn't score this time but assisted his teammate, for a 1-on-1 situation with Courtois, who couldn't stop a crossed right-foot strike from the Spanish winger. With this crucial victory, Real Madrid restored their 4 points from Barcelona, just 2 games and 10 days away from the visit to Camp Nou. With still 6 games left in La Liga we can all rest assured that we're going to watch both teams fighting until the end!
Real Madrid line-up vs Atletico Madrid:
Goalkeeper: Casillas
Defenders: Fábio Coentrão, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Arbeloa
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Khedira
Attackers: Kaká, Di María, Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema
| Match stats provided by www.ronaldo7.net
|
||
|---|---|---|
Atletico Madrid
|
vs
|
Real Madrid
|
1 |
Goals |
4 |
13 |
Shots |
25 |
3 |
Shots on goal |
9 |
7 |
Corner kicks |
8 |
18 |
Fouls commited |
15 |
2 |
Yellow cards |
3 |
0 |
Red cards |
0 |
49% |
Ball possession |
51% |
Real Madrid next game is for La Liga, against Sporting Gijon, this next Saturday (14-04-2012). In the meanwhile, you can watch Real Madrid vs Sporting Gijon, Levante vs Barcelona, Norwich vs Manchester City and Liverpool vs Everton, all from our football live streams section. Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to be a starter, when Real Madrid hosts Sporting Gijon, this weekend.
Real Madrid vs Sporting Gijon kick-off time (14-04-2012):
Jakarta (Indonesia) | GMT+7: 02:00
Spain (Madrid) | GMT+1: 20:00
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | GMT+0: 19:00
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | GMT-2: 17:00
New York (United States) | GMT-5: 14:00
Los Angeles (United States) | GMT-8: 11:00
Beijing (China) | GMT-8: 11:00
Sources: ronaldo7.net / espn.com
