'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
With their spot in the Champions League final now confirmed and a top-four place in the Premier League all but secured, Liverpool’s attentions are likely turning towards their opponents in the final – Real Madrid.
The Spanish giants have won the last two Champions League titles, and if Jurgen Klopp wants to be the man to stop them making that three in a row, he needs to do one thing above all else – find a way to stop Cristiano Ronaldo.
CR7 is a force of nature when it comes to the Champions League – even in what’s been considered a weaker season by his standards, he’s still delivered in an insane way – scoring 15 goals in 12 appearances. He isn’t completely unstoppable, though – and if Klopp wants to prevent him doing damage against Liverpool, he could take a leaf from the books of these 5 bosses.
#1 Pep Guardiola
Given how ubiquitous both men are with Real Madrid and Barcelona respectively, it’s quite hard to believe that Ronaldo only faced a Guardiola-managed Barca six times in La Liga action (although the two faced off in other competitions on other occasions). And in terms of league success against Ronaldo, no other manager can boast so much as Guardiola. His Barcelona team defeated Ronaldo’s Madrid in four of their six league meetings, with only one victory going Ronaldo’s way.
More impressively, Ronaldo only scored twice – once from the spot – against Pep’s men in La Liga action. So how exactly did Guardiola stop the Portuguese phenomenon? Well, having probably the best club side in the history of the game obviously helped – but so did Guardiola’s style of play at times.
Ronaldo’s first Clasico saw him largely stopped by a strong performance from Barca keeper Victor Valdes while Barca went on to win the game 1-0, while his second – a 2-0 defeat – saw him starved of service due to the midfield dominance of Xavi.
It was Barca’s thumping 5-0 win over Ronaldo’s Madrid in 2010 that really suggested that Pep had the Indian sign over CR7, though. On this occasion, Ronaldo was simply marked out of the game by defender Eric Abidal – who had clearly been told to stop the Portuguese at any cost – and was reduced to being a bit-part player in the game.
While Ronaldo finally managed to get one over Pep in what was Guardiola’s final Clasico – he scored the winner over a jaded-looking Barca side in 2012 to help Madrid to capture the league title – it’s hard to deny the success Guardiola had over him.
#2 Otto Rehhagel
Alright, so back in 2004 Ronaldo wasn’t quite the all-conquering force of nature that he’s become today, but there’s no denying that by the time Euro 2004 rolled around, he was swiftly becoming Portugal’s key attacking talent – thoroughly outshining the fading duo of Luis Figo and Manuel Rui Costa in that tournament.
Despite helping Portugal to the final though, one manager found a way to keep him quiet – German veteran Otto Rehhagel, who was managing the eventual champions – underdogs Greece. The craziest part of it all? Somehow he managed to do it twice in the same tournament.
The first meeting between Portugal – the hosts of the tournament – and Greece came in the opening match. Most observers were expecting Portugal to simply whitewash the unheralded Greeks, but that wasn’t the case at all – Rehhegal’s well-drilled unit simply defended deeply and in numbers and despite giving up 63% possession and allowing 19 shots on goal, they ran out 2-1 winners.
In that game, Ronaldo was a substitute, and was brought on at half-time with Portugal 1-0 down in an attempt to change the game around. Instead – like most of Portugal’s other attacking talents – he was kept relatively quiet and even conceded a penalty to allow Greece a 2-0 lead. While he did score a consolation goal in the 93rd minute, it was too little, too late.
Following the upset, Ronaldo would go on to have an excellent tournament, scoring in the semi-final and being named amongst the best 23 players of the competition. But in the final – a rematch with the Greeks – he was again shut out by the dogged, deep defending of Rehhegal’s side. Not that he didn’t have any chances – in the 75th minute he skied a shot from just 8 yards, and Portugal went on to lose the game 1-0 in one of football’s great upsets.
Over the course of two games, Rehhegal proved that ultra-defensive tactics could be enough to stop one of Europe’s most promising young talents.
#3 Vicente del Bosque
Vicente del Bosque’s Spain side managed to shut out Ronaldo’s Portugal team in two successive international tournaments – World Cup 2010 from South Africa and then Euro 2012 from Poland and Ukraine – and on both occasions, CR7 cut an unhappy-looking figure as he was simply unable to make a mark on either game.
Interestingly enough, both occasions saw incredibly tight games with few shots hitting the target. 2010 saw Spain run out 1-0 winners while 2012’s game finished 0-0, with Spain winning after a penalty shoot-out that infamously saw Ronaldo attempt to wait for the crucial 5th kick, only to not even be given a chance following misses from teammates Joao Moutinho and Bruno Alves.
The key for del Bosque’s teams being able to stop him though probably lay in the men they deployed at the centre of their defence. The foundation of 2010’s defense was made up of two Barcelona players – Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol – who had been involved in successfully stopping Ronaldo earlier that season on two occasions – as well as his teammate Sergio Ramos.
By 2012, the Spanish defence had even more of a Real flavour, as full-back Alvaro Arbeloa had joined his teammate Ramos in looking to shut out their deadly clubmate CR7. And on both occasions, Ronaldo’s teammates and most heated rivals did the job – reducing him to a couple of free-kick shots in 2010 and very little influence at all in 2012.
Del Bosque might’ve had a big advantage over most managers with the players he deployed to stop Ronaldo, but he can still boast of being one boss who simply never allowed the Portuguese to damage his teams.
#4 Carlo Ancelotti
Back in 2006/07 – with Ronaldo quickly becoming perhaps the most feared attacking player in world football – one of his future managers at Real Madrid found a way to stop the Portuguese forward. At the time, Carlo Ancelotti was manager of AC Milan, and he came up against Ronaldo in the semi-finals of the Champions League while CR7 was starring in Manchester United’s attack alongside fellow superstar Wayne Rooney.
Ronaldo and Rooney had developed a frightening partnership based on an ability to switch positions practically at will – with one man dropping deeper and the other racing forward – and the 2006/07 season saw them almost at their devastating best, scoring 46 goals between them as United won the Premier League.
In the first leg of their tie with Milan, it was Ronaldo and Rooney who did the most damage – they ran out 3-2 winners at Old Trafford with Ronaldo scoring once and Rooney twice, and they created a glut of chances that went astray too. It was only the brilliance of Kaka that allowed Milan to remain in the tie.
The second leg, however, was a different story entirely. This time Ancelotti had drilled his defence to be fully aware of Rooney and Ronaldo’s style of play, and more devastatingly for the Portuguese, he tasked human pitbull Gennaro Gattuso with largely man-marking him.
In the end, Ronaldo was barely given a kick and cut a totally dejected figure as Milan dominated the game and ran out 3-0 winners to progress to the final. The likes of Massimo Oddo and Alessandro Nesta defended tremendously for Milan but it was the hatchet job from Gattuso that really kept Ronaldo quiet – a masterstroke from one of the most underrated bosses in the game in Ancelotti.
#5 Heimir Hallgrimsson
While Portugal would eventually go on to win the European Championship in 2016 – with Ronaldo scoring in the semi-finals and practically coaching the team to victory in the final match, their opening game of the tournament was an entirely forgettable one for the Real Madrid superstar. Portugal stuttered to a 1-1 draw with Iceland – a result which left CR7 absolutely furious.
Iceland boss Heimir Hallgrimsson borrowed a page from the book of Otto Rehhegal, whose Greece side had successfully kept Ronaldo quiet twice in Euro 2004, and simply had his players defend as deeply as possible, marking Ronaldo as tightly as they could, and despite only having 27% possession, they came away looking like the moral victors after securing a 1-1 draw.
Granted, Hallgrimsson’s men didn’t keep Ronaldo entirely quiet – he did manage to carve out some chances, but with his mental game seemingly put off by Iceland’s defensive tactics, he conspired to miss them all pretty badly, never really coming close to scoring.
To make matters worse, Ronaldo went on an astonishing post-match rant, accusing Iceland of having a “small mentality” and railing against them for celebrating the draw like they’d won the whole tournament. It showed just how much Iceland and Hallgrimsson had gotten under his skin.
Other bosses like Ancelotti and Guardiola may have had more success in stopping Ronaldo – who admittedly was somewhat off-form for the game – but perhaps none angered CR7 quite like Hallgrimsson and his ultra-defensive tactics.
