Analysis: What are the odds for the Champions to defend their title without Cristiano Ronaldo?
Champions League is the most coveted trophy of the European club competition for which clubs across leagues strive for. The glory of winning the prestigious trophy once or twice is enormous as the winners become legends and stamp their authority on the walls of history.
Having said that, we have clubs like Barcelona, Liverpool and Bayern Munich who have won it five times each. Then there is AC Milan who has won it seven times. These are clubs which have a rich history in this flagship club competition.
And, finally comes Real Madrid, the legendary club that holds the record of winning it a whopping thirteen times. Di Stefano's Real Madrid is still the strongest contender of the greatest team of this competition who had won it in consecutive five seasons from 1956 to 1960.
In this slideshow, we will analyze that without Cristiano, does Real Madrid have the resources in place to take one step forward to match the achievements of De Stefano's Madrid by defending their crown. Real Madrid's goalscoring retrospective into each of the Champions League wins since 2013-14 would provide a better idea in this aspect.
2013-14: The goalscoring hackathon by Los Blancos
After losing it to Bayern Munich in the semifinals in the previous campaign, Real Madrid came back stronger in the competition to wreck havoc on the opponents. The 20 goals scored in the group stage provides the proof of the wrath faced by the defences of Copenhagen, Galatasaray, and Juventus. Cristiano scored 9 out of those 20 goals in 5 games. He was not included in the squad against Galatasaray at the Bernabeu.
In the round of 16, they had a light work of Schalke 04 which they won 9-2 on aggregate. Ronaldo scored a brace in each leg. In the first leg, Benzema had already put Madrid on the driving seat by scoring a brace before Cristiano and Gareth Bale came to the party. In the second leg, Ronaldo scored a brace to add gloss to his goalscoring spree.
In the quarterfinals, Ronaldo's strike in the first leg proved decisive as they battled it out 3-2 on aggregate against Borussia Dortmund. Bale and Isco were also on the scoresheet.
In the Semifinals, Benzema gave Los Blancos a slender advantage of a solitary goal in their home fixture. A quick-fire brace by Sergio Ramos in the return leg left Bayern Munich stunned and demoralized.
In the finals, a stoppage-time header from Sergio Ramos cancelled Atletico Madrid's lead, saved the day for the Merengues and provided the launch pad for the ultimate victory. Ronaldo scored a penalty in the 120th minute of the game.
Los Blancos went on to score 21 goals in the knockout phase where Cristiano found the back of the net 8 times. Therefore in total CR7 scored 17 goals out of 41 scored by Real Madrid. However, Bale, Benzema, and Ramos were equally decisive in key encounters.