#3 Ronaldo and Ramos faltered, badly
Messi’s star will shine brightest following this game, but what will hurt Cristiano Ronaldo more is that, for the first time in a long while, he failed spectacularly when the pressure was on. The forward could have won a penalty in the 2nd minute, but things went downhill after that.
The moment that will be replayed in his head as he lays to rest tonight will be the shot he scooped over the bar in the 67th minute with the goal at his mercy. Score that, and the story of the night might have been very different.
And nothing proves how bad Ronaldo was tonight, other than this:
Real Madrid’s two leaders are Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos. With the Portuguese star misfiring, you would expect the Spanish centre-back to keep a level head, but Ramos is.... Ramos.
I won’t espouse further, other that to point out that when he made his awful two-footed challenge on Messi in the 77th minute, Ramos had neither won a single tackle nor made a single interception all game.