Real Madrid played very good football during the most recent edition of El Clasico in La Liga, but failed to take their chances. A good deal of the blame for the loss to FC Barcelona fell on Cristiano Ronaldo. Normally one of the most clinical finishers in world football, he missed multiple golden chances at key moments of the match. One miss was an absolute sitter and came while the match was tied at 1-1, just seconds before Barcelona would go on to take the lead.
When Barcelona and Madrid play in the first leg of their Copa Del Rey quarterfinal tie on Wednesday, the pressure will be on Ronaldo to atone for his errors in the December Clasico. If he fails to do so, FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes thinks that it could be a serious negative turning point in Ronaldo's career.
Putting him under this added pressure given his undoubted desire to score against Barcelona could lead to a reappearance of that selfish Ronaldo, shooting from improbable distances when he could have passed and taking on multiple defenders when there is a man in space. There is only one team that would benefit: FC Barcelona. Then what would happen? The murmurings of discontent would grow louder, the pressure would multiply and it could be the straw that broke the camel's back.
It would be surprising if a poor performance in Copa was what turned the Madridistas against Ronaldo, but it's still a Clasico, and a player can only have so many bad Clasicos before the fans stop forgiving him.
For more on the two teams, check out Real Madrid blog Managing Madrid and FC Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes.
There are 0 Comments. Add Yours.
Shortcuts to mastering the comment thread. Use wisely.
C - Next Comment
X - Mark as Read
R - Reply
Z - Mark Read & Next
Shift + C - Previous
Shift + A - Mark All Read
Comment Settings
Live comment alert: Hide it!
Comments for this post are closed.