4 tactics used by Atletico Madrid to stop Cristiano Ronaldo | Champions League 2018/19
Cristiano Ronaldo's return to the city where he spent some of the most successful years of his career was disappointing, to say the least. On Wednesday night, Juventus visited Atletico Madrid for the first leg of the round of 16 tie in the UEFA Champions League.
The game was billed to be one of the ties of the round. Juventus were firm favourites to come away with a positive result and why not? They had, in their team, the player who had won the tournament a record 5 times and was also the all-time record goalscorer of the tournament.
The Portuguese did have a quiet start to the tournament since moving to Turin, but Ronaldo has been known to step up his performances in the knockout rounds before. Yet, as the game progressed, a very different picture came to the fore.
Cristiano Ronaldo had a night to forget and failed to influence the game, as Juventus succumbed to a 0-2 loss at the hands of Atletico Madrid. While the home team were stellar on the night, the secret behind their success was keeping the Portuguese quiet and here are 4 tactics deployed by Atletico Madrid in the game, which helped them stop Cristiano Ronaldo.
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#4 Psychological Warfare
Since the start of the game, the home fans were on his case. A former Real Madrid player is never welcome at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium, but in case of the Portuguese, the fans took it a step higher.
His every miscontrol was jeered and taunted continuously. He responded by pointing out 5 fingers to indicate that he had won the Champions League 5 times and Atletico Madrid had not won it even once. This game of taunting, in the long run, affected his game.
Ronaldo was guilty of trying too hard at times and the fact that the opposition players did not hold back in their tackles made matters even worse. That, coupled with his teammates' inability to rise to the occasion took a toll on him as the night progressed.
In fact, he was so riled up that his frustrations were evident even after the game, when he walked by past the press, still indicating that he had won the tournament 5 times.
While it was not the most genuine way to win the game, Atletico successfully managed to keep Ronaldo from playing his natural game, which helped them deal with him easily.