It was always going to be him, wasn’t it?
When the big moments arrive at Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo is invariably in the right place at the right time, and so it proved again in the Club World Cup final against a poor Gremio outfit.
Both teams went into the final with aspirations of being ‘World Champions,’ Real for the second consecutive season and Gremio for the first time since 1983. It was also the Brazilian’s first time in the final since 1995 so it’s understandable why 6,000 of their followers made the trip, compared to just 800 Madridistas.
They’ll be extremely disappointed by their club’s showing, however.
After narrowly overcoming Pachuca in the semi-final thanks to an extra-time goal from Everton, Gremio didn’t even manage a decent effort on goal throughout the 90 minutes of the final.
They were so poor in front of goal that Keylor Navas could’ve watched from the bench.
Maybe that’s down in part to superior Los Blancos organisation. They moved their opponents back and forth and across the pitch at will, showing them down blind alleys at every opportunity.
When the ball did get into Real’s box, there were one, maybe two Gremio strikers able to receive at best, compared with three or four Real players back and covering – every time.
It took until early in the second half for the goal to arrive, but in truth, had Real taken their earlier opportunities, they could’ve been at least two or three goals to the good by then.
A needlessly given away free-kick was within Ronaldo range, and though he struck it well, the ball travelled with between two of the players in the defensive wall leaving goalkeeper, Marcelo, with no chance.
To that point, Ronaldo hadn’t been involved an awful lot either, but as he has done time and time again, he was there when his team needed him most.
Say what you like about whether he’s the ‘best in the world,’ but nobody can argue with his penchant for decisiveness on the biggest stages.
Gareth Bale almost stole Ronaldo’s thunder shortly after coming on with an outrageous outside-of-the-boot shot that Marcelo tipped over. It had the Real bench with their heads in their hands in disbelief.
Each and every player worked his socks off for Zinedine Zidane, with Luca Modric a deserved man of the match. What a pity the same can’t be said for Gremio.
The sub-standard nature of their performance will only add fuel to the fire for those that suggest this competition is nothing more than a FIFA junket to propagate their brand in certain key areas.
Men against boys…
To that point, Ronaldo hadn’t been involved an awful lot either, but as he has done time and time again, he was there when his team needed him most.
Say what you like about whether he’s the ‘best in the world,’ but nobody can argue with his penchant for decisiveness on the biggest stages.
Gareth Bale almost stole Ronaldo’s thunder shortly after coming on with an outrageous outside-of-the-boot shot that Marcelo tipped over. It had the Real bench with their heads in their hands in disbelief.
Each and every player worked his socks off for Zinedine Zidane, with Luca Modric a deserved man of the match. What a pity the same can’t be said for Gremio.
The sub-standard nature of their performance will only add fuel to the fire for those that suggest this competition is nothing more than a FIFA junket to propagate their brand in certain key areas.
Men against boys…
