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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.
#3 Cutting out his supply line
Allegri started with Matuidi, Betancur and Pjanic in the midfield, but the three of them were busy dealing with the high pressing game of the home side. As such, the long balls for Ronaldo from the midfield were few and far in between.
In fact, the Portuguese was so isolated that he regularly dropped deep, to receive the ball and initiate attacks.
Simeone also ensured that the Dybala-Ronaldo partnership was not allowed to flourish. The Argentinean has the ability to pick out a pass and can be deadly on his day. However, the home side ensured that Dybala had a quiet game too, further piling the misery on Ronaldo.
By the end of the first half, Ronaldo had been at the end of just one ball in the box and as such, he was largely ineffective.
At the start of the second half, he tried to turn provider on a couple of occasions, but Juventus continued to fail to find the final ball. There were a couple of occasions when he got into some space in the box, but he was immediately closed down.
In the dying moments of the game, he did have a chance to steal a vital away goal, but his header from close range was off target.
#2 Restricting him to shots from outside the box
Cristiano Ronaldo’s finishing ability is among the best in the world. While he is brilliant at beating his marker and running past his man, it is the work that he does in the box that defines him best.
Since joining Juventus in the Serie A, the Portuguese had continued his fabulous goalscoring form in Italy as well. And his record in the Champions League in the last few years has been massive too. As such, Simeone knew it very well that to stop Juventus, he had to stop Cristiano Ronaldo from scoring.
The Argentinean coach used all his years of experience on the night and utilized the knowledge gained from watching the Portuguese play in Spain. He restricted Ronaldo to attempting shots from outside the box, he allowed his players to give away free kicks, but he denied the Portuguese any space and time inside the box.
Ronaldo was not allowed to enter the box and get into important positions. In the entire first half, he had been allowed inside on just 2 occasions.
Even in the second half, and until the last moment of the game, the Portuguese hardly found himself clear on goal and had to be content with shooting from distance. As such, he was largely ineffective.
#1 Refusing him space to operate
Simeone knew how dangerous the Portuguese could be if he was allotted time on the ball and ensured that there was always someone pressing him whenever he had the ball.
As such, Ronaldo never really got a foothold in the game and whenever he tried to run at people, he had the opposition players covering him well. He did win a few free kicks when the Atletico pressure resulted in a few fouls, however, it was a tactic that largely worked.
When Ronaldo failed to influence the game through the middle, he shifted to the wings. But Atletico’s speedy fullbacks stayed disciplined and successfully kept him at bay. Whenever required, the midfielders shifted to the sides and they doubled teamed the Portuguese out of the game.
Without any space to run into and with someone always breathing down his neck, Ronaldo found it hard to play his natural game in the first half.
Even when Juventus tried to play on the counter, the Portuguese was not afforded any space and as such, he had little impact on the game. Without his goalscoring abilities, Juventus looked blunt in attack and lost the game.
