Why Cristiano still makes a difference

It was a couple of years into Cristiano Ronaldo’s Manchester United career when he was taken to a specialist after complaining of acute abdominal pain. Sir Alex Ferguson and his assistant Mike Phelan visited the clinic with Ronaldo and it wasn’t long before the root of the problem was identified. Ronaldo, it turned out, was doing 700 sit-ups a day.

It was suggested to the player that he perhaps takes things a little easier for a while although a brief break from first team action was quickly discounted as an option. “Live with that pain Cristiano,” Ferguson said, laughing. “You’re playing on Saturday.”

A hamstring injury had kept Ronaldo out of the first leg of Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final against Manchester City, and having seen how listless his team looked up front without their talisman, it is easy to imagine Zinedine Zidane had subsequently been in the Portuguese’s ear telling him to suck it up a la Ferguson.

Ronaldo is so often Real’s version of Rambo – a merciless one-man hit squad – but even when he is not at his best his presence also emboldens and emancipates team-mates and that was so very evident in the Bernabeu on Wednesday night as City encountered a markedly different side to the one that had been flat and laboured in Manchester

From the marvellous pairing of Luka Modric and Isco pulling the strings in midfield to the maraudering presence of full-backs Dani Carvajal and Marcelo, and the ever willing running of Jesse, this was a much more recognisable Real. If there was a criticism, it was that they failed to make their superiority count and could not kill off the game against a City side who were alarmingly passive and did not seem to believe they could win

For long periods, City could not live with them, unable to get off their opponent’s passing carousel and careless in possession on those rare occasions they did have the ball. That they remained in the tie for so long failed to reflect Real’s dominance.

The Ronaldo effect manifests itself most obviously in a prodigious supply of goals but it works in other ways, too, and there was some insight into that during Real’s final training session in the build up to this game. Unhappy at James Rodriguez’s attitude and application, Ronaldo forcibly made his displeasure known. “James – sort your head out, brother!” he barked.