Cristiano Ronaldo reached 400 goals with Real Madrid thanks to a pair of strikes against Celta Vigo on Monday night. In light of the milestone, Thomas Woods recounts his five favourite Ronaldo goals through the years.
v Portsmouth, 2008
Of all Ronaldo’s free-kick goals, this tops the list as it ticks all three boxes. Pace - check, swerve – check, flies into the goal between the angle of crossbar and post – check. How he got the ball to bend in that direction is remarkable. Portsmouth’s keeper, David James, had no chance.
v Rayo Vallecano, 2012
It’s not all power and long-range efforts. Ronaldo has a few cheeky back-heel goals in his repertoire and this tops the lot. It was cheeky and bamboozled the entire Vallecano defence with it’s audacity. He can score from anywhere.
v Osasuna, 2012
Few players in world football can hit the ball as hard as Ronaldo, as demonstrated by this thunderbolt in 2012 away at Osasuna. To attempt an effort from so far out shows how confident Ronaldo is with his long-range ability. That the ball rockets into the top corner is just world class.
v Porto, 2009
This effort against Porto was voted Manchester United’s best goal of the decade for 2000-2009. A screamer from 40 yards out is special in its own right, but this came in a Champions League quarter-final and Porto held the upper hand from the first leg having drawn 2-2 at Old Trafford. Ronaldo’s wonder striker gave United a 1-0 win and helped them to the final, where they fell to Barcelona
v Arsenal, 2009
You could fill this entire list with goals from distance, there have been that many. In fact this Champions League semi-final second leg, coming after the Porto match, had already seen Ronaldo smash home a trademark free kick. This goal, however, shows another important side of his game. The flick to spark a counter attack, and the pace and power to run the length of the pitch to get on the end of Wayne Rooney’s pass and score.
