Europe's Top 5 Leagues: The best performers from last week

#5 Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo: Hungry to succeed

Cristiano seems to have finally got the hang of things at Italy. His performance are improving and his cohesion with the teammates is improving too.

Cristiano was on his level best against Napoli. Napoli did take the lead through Dries Mertens but Carlo Ancelotti’s side failed to capitalise on the lead. Cristiano was almost under par in the first half, getting dispossessed several times, the passes either having too much weight or getting intercepted. He didn’t make it easy for Matuidi and Dybala to find him while running behind Koulibaly, who would gobble up anything around him. But Ronaldo’s first half did have two highlights.

First, his cross which gave Mandzukic his first goal. He lined by on the left wing, pretended to go one way and turned away quickly facing goal. He beat the defender clean and with a clear line of sight picked the cross right into Mandzukic.

Next one was the free-kick which he won outside the box. From a difficult angle to get a goal, even though the distance wasn’t such an issue, Ronaldo drilled one low across the wall which was heading straight into the bottom corner, but for the timely reaction from Ospina.

Ronaldo was much better in the second half, his worked his way around the defences. In the 49th minute the cut inside with the ball and shot with the right, which hit the post and came right back into Mandzukic. Ronaldo’s header which came into Chiellini gave Juve their third goal.

Ronaldo had several goal-scoring opportunities afterwards. One of them saved by Ospina, one messed up by his own left foot. The other chances were put to bed by the defence. But this till now, is the best performance for CR7 against a quality opposition in the black and whites. His ardent followers will be hoping for more of the same and even better from him.