Cristiano Ronaldo has been heavily criticized during his career because he didn’t show up in important days. Obviously, no one can doubt nowadays that the Portuguese striker always helps his team in the crucial games. The Champions League final in Cardiff would be another important date in his calendar.
This would be the fifth Champions League final for Cristiano Ronaldo. He won the first one in Moscow with Manchester United against Chelsea. The Portuguese striker scored for the Red Devils with a great header. Although he missed a penalty in the shoot-out, he was able to lift the cup. One year later, he was unluckier against FC Barcelona in Rome. In 2009, Messi brought misery to Cristiano, who couldn’t score in that final.
Cristiano Ronaldo played two more finals of the Champions League with Real Madrid. In both he arrived quite bad physically, after a very demanding season. However, he scored from the penalty spot in Lisbon in the extra time and he kicked the last penalty in Milan to lift the 11th Champions League.
This year he has already showed his importance, scoring a brace at the Allianz Arena in Munich and a hat-trick against the German side at Santiago Bernabéu. In the semi-finals, he scored again three goals in the derby to dump Atlético Madrid. In La Liga, he was very important with goals against Sevilla, Celta de Vigo or Málaga in the three last games of the competition.
Cristiano Ronaldo arrives, then, better than ever to the last game of the season for Real Madrid -he’ll have to play the Confederations Cup with Portugal-. Zinedine Zidane knew how to give him rest, and now the Portuguese striker has the Champions League and a probable Golden Ball in his mind.
We can set even more examples of Cristiano Ronaldo showing up in very important days with Los Blancos. For instance, he’s a specialist in scoring goals to FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid. We all remember El Clásico in the final of Copa del Rey in 2011 and his header to beat Pinto. He has scored 10 goals against Barcelona at the Camp Nou, including the definitive one to win La Liga in 2012.
Will Cristiano Ronaldo be the star in the next Champions League final?
