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FIFA 2018: Ronaldo single-handedly stops Spanish Armada to stake GOAT claim

Ronaldo was sublime against the Spaniards.

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In retrospect, it perhaps wasn’t the best time for Spanish tax authorities to threaten Cristiano Ronaldo with a jail sentence. It appears to have irked the man who refuses to go gently into the good night. Legal sources in Spain say that Ronaldo penned a deal that’d keep him out of prison just before the match.  Perhaps, the three goals against the country where he plies his trade was added payment for that insolence.

For the last few years, football fans kept wondering when the magic will end, critics were ready to latch on to any signs of him slowing down. However, like Federer, he simply appears to be shrugging off the overtures of Father Time.

Coming into the World Cup, Ronaldo still had the monkey of not ‘leading’ his country to major trophy, even though he has won a Euro, something no Portuguese team from any golden generation has managed. His achievements on the national stage should easily put him above greats like Figo or Eusebio but the fact that he was injured in the final probably still rankles. 

He was a one-man army, facing up against the mighty Spanish armada. While this team might not have the pedigree fo the their tiki-tiki passing predecessors, they are still a notch above Portugal. 

Spain were clearly the better passers with Ramos and Isco passing the ball more than a hundred times each. Diego Costa was his usual brutal-self upfront, harrowing defenders and was more than a match for Pepe while Nacho redeemed himself for the penalty he conceded by scoring the goal of his life with sweetly struck shot.

Read: These stats will prove Ronaldo is a class apart

Yet, the only thing that stopped Spain winning this one easily was Cristiano Ronaldo with a little help from David De Gea, who made a shocking gaffe.

It started with a second-minute penalty after Nacho’s unlucky tackle, which to be fair, was a 50-50 challenge. But it was Ronaldo’s second goal that will haunt the Manchester United keeper for years to come as he let a standard shot with barely any sting on it slip in.

 It was up there with Robert Green’s howler in 2010 where he let in USA forward Clint Demsey’s shot and every football fan who has watched David De Gea pull off absolutely mind-boggling saves over the years, will wonder if he was possessed by Liverpool keeper Laris Karius. It was reminiscent of a David De Gea from the early 2010s, when his manager ranted at referees for not giving him 'enough protection' when crosses came in. 

However, despite De Gea’s howler, Spain looked on course to win before Ronaldo stepped up in the 88th minute. For fans who’ve followed his career, the ball going in looked highly unlikely, Ronaldo have missed the last 44 free kicks he has taken for club or country. However, instead of the classic Ronaldo knuckle-ball shot, where he plants his left feet by the ball while putting the laces through it, Ronaldo hit more in a Beckhamsque manner with his instep.

And it was 45th time lucky, as the ball swished into the near post after swirling past the wall with David De Gea rooted to his spot.  Or it was merely Ronaldo lifting his game in the biggest stage possible, against a hallowed opposition, like only a true championc can. 

He ended up joining a super-elite group including Pele, Seeler and Klose not to mention other mind-boggling stats that seem barely human. He has now scored in eight consecutive tournaments going back to Euro 2004. At the club level, he has scored more than 40 goals in every season since 2010. To put his longevity into perspective, Ronaldo’s partner-in-crime back in the day, Wayne Rooney has since then retired from international football and is unable to cut in the Premier League and has moved to DC United in the MLS.

Ronaldo however, shows no signs of slowing down, having metamorphosed from a flying inside winger, cutting in from the left and right leaving defenders with twisted blood, to a classic number 9. His sphere of influence on the pitch has greatly decreased, he barely participates in build-up play but in the final third, there are few who can match his predatorial instincts. And of course, it’s impossible to write about Ronaldo without comparing him to the only man who is in the same league. Messi and Ronaldo will remain a statistical, emotional and epistemological battle for the ages.

While Messi has led Barcelona to three Champions League titles, Ronaldo has five (one with Man Utd and four with Real Madrid). Each of them has won the FIFA Player of the Year five times, with Ronaldo getting it in the last few years.

And he couldn’t help but taunt his rival after scoring the first goal, stroking an imaginary beard to mock Messi’s GOAT campaign with ADIDAS. While some will find it distasteful, like the time he threw a reporter’s mike into a lake at EURO 2016, it’s this unwavering belief in his superiority that keeps him going. He doesn't pretend to be the nice guy, he doesn't need to be it, as he is that audaciously good with his craft. 

It has seen him go from being a poor boy on the dusty streets of Madeira to Old Trafford to the Santiago Bernabeu, winning every single gong that football has to offer except the big one – the World Cup. And for us fans who've followed his career since he was 18, it's a never-ending source of joy to see him continue to put in such elite performances day-in and day-out. 

Maybe the World Cup is a bridge too far for this Portuguese team, but as long as Ronaldo is fit, you wouldn’t bet against it. And if he leaves Real Madrid this season, one can rest assure that Ronaldo won’t be going quietly into the night. 

Greatest of all time? Both Messi and Ronaldo have a chance to seal that debate once and for all in the next few weeks.

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