3 times Cristiano Ronaldo impressed the entire World

Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League
Manchester United v Manchester City - Premier League

Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Aviero, probably the longest and also BIGGEST name in the history of football. The skinny guy from Sporting Lisbon introduced himself to the world in a friendly match against Manchester United. The 18 year old boy was running through United’s defence with ease. Sir Alex Ferguson made no delay and signed the boy for Manchester United in 2003.

At the age of 15, Ronaldo was diagnosed with a racing heart and he underwent an operation to treat his condition and began his senior career with Sporting before joining Manchester United in 2003. It was then, when his fortunes changed and he introduced himself as the next big thing.

Ronaldo grew up in as a professional footballer in Manchester and was soon labeled as their icon or the most lovable player amongst the fans. He is often regarded as the best player of Premier league due to his un-matchable performances. The 2008 Ballon D’or winner then moved to the most successful club in European competitions, Real Madrid in the summer of 2009 for a world record fee of 80 Million Euros at that time.

Cristiano Ronaldo is a player who has the ability to decide a game on his own. Cristiano Ronaldo continued his form in Madrid and went on to become the club’s highest ever goal scorer along with numerous individual as well as collective titles.

Ronaldo was the biggest reason for Real Madrid’s UCL domination in the past 5 years. Now that he has moved to Juventus on a four-year deal after spending 9 seasons at the Spanish capital, the Turin based club have become the top contenders of the UCL title. Cristiano is the highest ever goalscorer in the UEFA Champions League.

There have been plenty of occasions when the Portuguese have shocked the world with his performances, abilities and skills. It’s safe to say that Cristiano Ronaldo was destined to become a king of world football.

Let’s take a look at 3 biggest occasions when the 5 time Ballon D’or winner impressed the entire world:

#3 Hattrick against Wolfsburg in a do or die match

Real Madrid CF v VfL Wolfsburg - UEFA Champions League Quarter Final: Second Leg
Real Madrid CF v VfL Wolfsburg - UEFA Champions League Quarter Final: Second Leg

In the quarter-final of the 15/16 UCL campaign, Real Madrid was expected to beat Wolfsburg with a comfortable win. Though, something strange and unexpected happened as the German club defeated Real Madrid 2-0 in the first leg.

It’s not an easy task to overcome a 2-0 deficit in the UCL QFs unless you have a player named Cristiano Ronaldo in your squad.

Wolfsburg manager said “Real Madrid are the weakest of the strongest”. Several critics, media outlets and football pundits backed Wolfsburg to qualify but Ronaldo had different plans.

As soon as Cristiano steeped on the pitch in the 2nd leg, he seemed to be confident and hungry for vengeance. It didn’t take much long to overcome the 2-0 deficit as Cristiano scored the first goal in the 15th minute and followed with another goal in a 2-minute span. “A mountain to climb and they’ve hit the peak already and it is Cristiano Ronaldo by himself”, the commentator screamed.

Later in the match, Ronaldo scored a free kick with pin point accuracy as Real Madrid qualified to the semis with a 3-2 aggregate.

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#2 Portugal vs Sweden

Ronaldo has done brilliant work for the clubs he had played for. But also, he never failed to impress with his national side. One such instance happened prior to the World Cup 2014 when Portugal faced Sweden in a qualifying match and the winner goes to the WC.

Sweden v Portugal - FIFA 2014 World Cup Qualifier: Play-off Second Leg
Sweden v Portugal - Cristiano Ronaldo in action.

It was the battle of titans as Cristiano Ronaldo was going to face Zlatan Imbrahimovic. The first half of the game went goalless. But soon after the half time, the game reached its spark as Ronaldo scored the first goal of the match in the 50th minute.

Ibrahimovic standing firm on the expectations pulled one back in the 68th minute and gave Sweden the lead four minutes later.

But, the game came to life as Ronaldo leveled the score in the 77th minute and flipped the game with his hat trick goal as Portugal won 3-2 and qualified for the World Cup. This was one of the best matches of his entire career.

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#1 Hattrick against Spain

As soon as the world cup 2018 groups were named and the fixtures were announced, there was only one match everyone was talking about. The 2016 Euro champions, Portugal were going to face the 2010 World Champions, Spain. Interestingly, Ronaldo was going to face his Real Madrid teammates led by his friend, Sergio Ramos.

It was a match in which no team could have been considered as a better team as Spain had an overall better squad but Portugal had a good form and were led by the best player in the world, Cristiano Ronaldo.

Portugal v Spain: Group B - 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia
Ronaldo strikes from a long range and De Gea fails to deny the shot

Keeping up with the expectations, the match ended in a 3-3 draw where Cristiano Ronaldo was the decisive factor. The match began with a lot of excitement and a silly mistake by Nacho which resulted in a penalty being awarded to Portugal and Ronaldo scoring his first goal in the match beating De Gea with ease.

Costa scored in the 24th minute and Ronaldo made it 2-1 before the half time. Later Costa and Nacho scored to give Spain a 3-2 lead. And Cristiano Ronaldo, being the decisive factor, scored an exceptional free kick in the 88th minute making it 3-3. This was one of the best matches in the history of World Cups.

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Edited by Sripad