Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of Real Madrid’s Champions League news conference yesterday after responding angrily to a question about his recent lack of away goals on the eve of their last 16 first-leg tie with AS Roma.
Ronaldo broke the competition’s record for the most goals scored in the group stage earlier this season when he hit 11, and is also the Champions League’s all-time top scorer with 88 goals in 121 appearances. However, the Portugal forward was unhappy when asked why he had not scored on the road since Real Madrid’s 2-0 La Liga victory at Eibar on Nov 29th.
“Who else has scored more goals away from home than me since I arrived in Spain?” said
Ronaldo. “Name one player who has scored more than me? “No answer? Ok. Thank you everyone,” he added, before excusing himself from the news conference.
Away games
Ronaldo has scored 32 goals in all competitions so far this season – 21 at home and 11 away.
He has featured in four away games for Real since his goal against Eibar without finding the net, struggling to shine in recent La Liga matches against Real Betis and Granada.
“It’s understandable that people have doubts,” Ronaldo had said earlier. “It’s like with a son when you give him everything and then when you take it away, he cries. “I hope that I can keep this ‘bad form’ up until the season’s end.”
Earlier this week, Real coach Zinedine Zidane reaffirmed Ronaldo’s importance to the team after he scored twice in a 4-2 win over Athletic Bilbao at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
He will hope the forward can grab his first away goal since November against a Roma side who conceded 16 goals in the group stage, more than any other team that reached the last 16.
“Cristiano is very important on the wing because when he attacks one-on-one he’s very good, he’s very hard to defend against,” Zidane said
But AS Roma coach Luciano Spalletti has no plans “to cage” Champions League top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo when the Italian club takes on Real Madrid in tonight’s last 16 meeting. Spalletti is making no special provisions for Ronaldo.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the best players in the world, he can always make a difference. However, I’m not going to cage him, I’m not going to order three players to mark him,” the Roma coach said yesterday.
Romped
Defender Kostas Manolas added, “If we feel we’re only one third of Ronaldo, then we’d be better off not playing at all. We’d already be beaten.”
While Real romped through their group by scoring 19 goals as they won five of their six fixtures to amass 16 points, Roma squeezed into the knockout rounds with just six points after winning only one match.
Despite their poor showing, Spalletti refused to accept that Roma are outsiders.
“I don’t think there’s a favourite,” he said. “We’ve got a 50 per cent chance of going through.”
Spalletti has overseen a mini revival at Roma since replacing Rudi Garcia as coach on January 14th, winning four league games and losing only once.
“I’m very optimistic, as I’ve seen my players improving all the time,” he said. “I wouldn’t be amazed if it was my team who went through.”
Madrid left back Marcelo has recovered faster than expected from a shoulder injury that forced him to miss Saturday’s home game, was back in training on Monday and named in the match squad.
Isco looks certain to play in central midfield with Zidane saying he gave Mateo Kovacic a game against Athletic to rest the Spaniard.
Spalletti will have been pleased to see striker Edin Dzeko end his three-month scoring drought with a goal in Roma’s 3-1 win at Carpi on Friday.
