Real Madrid: Ranking the 10 best Cristiano Ronaldo goals with the club
Honourable mentions:
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a lot of memorable goals while playing for Real Madrid, and it’s very difficult to pick up just ten out of them. Various factors like the technical quality of the goal, the timing of the goal, and the strength of the opposition have been considered. There are some goals that have been equally great as the ones mentioned. Hence I’ll give those goals an honourable mention over here.
Backheel goal vs Rayo Vallecano, LaLiga 2011/12
You can view a video of the goal here.
Real Madrid won the 2011/12 LaLiga season with a record 100 points, under Jose Mourinho who setup a perfect counter-attacking team and built one of the strongest Madrid sides ever with a perfect system. They scored goals for fun that season, but not every game was easy and they had to face few challenges on the road.
One such game was an away match against Rayo Vallecano, where Real Madrid visibly struggled against a tough Rayo side. Real Madrid struggled to find the net until the 53rd minute, and it took a moment of individual brilliance from Cristiano Ronaldo in the 54th minute. He gained control of a failed clearance and cleverly shot the ball towards the goal with his backheel while moving away from the goal and with his back facing the goal.
The ball ended in the bottom right corner, leaving every defender shell shocked. There was a bit of luck associated with the goal, as the ball passed through scores of defenders. But fortune favours the brave and Ronaldo created his own luck by attempting a daring shot instead of trying to maintain possession and turn around. During tough games like these, it takes a special moment of brilliance and Ronaldo turned up when it was important to win every game and maintain the lead over Barcelona.
Superb goal vs Liverpool, Champions League Group Stage 2014/15
This is one of the most underrated goals of Cristiano’s career. This goal just showcases Ronaldo’s ability to link up with his teammates and produce a great end product. This came against Liverpool at Anfield, a stadium where he hadn’t scored a goal until that moment. Due to his Manchester United history, he was treated with some hostility by the Liverpool fans in the stadium. But he scored a beautiful goal in the 23rd minute to break the deadlock and silence the fans.
He collected the ball from Luka Modric and moved away from the goal to have a one-two with Pepe near the halfway line. He then proceeded towards the goal, combining with Karim Benzema on the way. While bursting towards the goal he passed the ball towards James Rodriguez, who chipped the ball into the box for the speeding Ronaldo to collect it. It was a quality pass, but Cristiano improvised further by chipping the ball over Mignolet with a shot from his right sidefoot, and he didn’t even care to look towards the goal post and the keeper.
The ball ended in the bottom-right corner and Cristiano proceeded to celebrate the goal with a vintage ‘Sii’ celebration. Big game, tough opposition, hostile fans, and all it took was a Cristiano Ronaldo special to silence them. Even those hostile fans had to surrender to Ronaldo’s brilliance, who applauded him while he was being subbed off.