5 best individual performances this weekend (17th-18th March)

#2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid): 4 goals, 1 assist vs FC Girona

When the king is on song, there's nothing like it. I mean, how dare we wrote this man off after he struggled to ease into his groove in the first half of the season. He has scored a nearly unbelievable 20 goals in the last 11 games. What kind of stats are those?!

Against FC Girona, who had the beating of the European champions in the corresponding fixture in the first half of the season, Cristiano Ronaldo was at his clinical best.

The signs were there from the get-go as he tested Yassine Bounou from 20 yards out from a driven free kick in the 4th minute of the game. He then volleyed home with aplomb from a Toni Kroos cut-back in the 11th minute and wheeled away in celebration.

Girona equalised in the 29th minute but around 20 minutes later, the Portuguese forward doubled his tally for the night after dinking the ball over the goalkeeper after latching on to a threaded pass from Karim Benzema.

Ronaldo then teed up Lucas Vazquez unselfishly 10 minutes later before tapping into the open goal from 5 yards out after Bono parried a Benzema shot in the 64th minute.

Cristiano Ronaldo did not stop there and sidefooted into the far corner in the 91st minute to take his tally to 4 and Real Madrid's tally to 6 on the night.

Cristiano Ronaldo now has 22 goals from 23 appearances. What was that about Ronaldo ageing and withering away?

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

Know More

Edited by Amit Mishra