Breaking Down Cristiano Ronaldo's Performance for Real Madrid vs. Atletico

Cristiano Ronaldo was unable to extend his three-match scoring streak on Tuesday, as Real Madrid were held to a 0-0 draw away to city rivals Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie.

Atletico normally do a good job of shutting down the prolific Portuguese forward. Per Soccerway, he had scored just two goals from open play in his previous 10 matches against them prior to Tuesday’s fixture.

“To stop Cristiano you must be very attentive and very organised,” Atletico centre-back Miranda recently told the Brazilian website Estadao (h/t Dermot Corrigan of ESPN FC). “You must always have a player at his side.”

And Atletico were largely able to comply with those requirements during Tuesday’s match. Ronaldo often drifted infield, with Karim Benzema moving left in his stead, and he even popped up unexpectedly on the right on a few occasions, but he was still unable to find sufficient space to regularly trouble Jan Oblak’s goal.

His control let him down when he was played in by Benzema down the right on a quick break just past the half-hour mark. His first touch took him too wide to shoot, and his low cross was easily cleared.

Madrid were well on top for the majority of the first half, but their best chances fell to Gareth Bale, James Rodriguez and Luka Modric. Ronaldo was involved in the good approach play that led to the last-mentioned of those chances but had no open-play attempts on goal himself during the opening 45 minutes.

Andres Kudacki/Associated Press/Associated Press

His two shots both came from set pieces. The first was a decently struck long-range free-kick that was comfortably saved by the diving Oblak; the second, from a little closer in, was easily blocked by the wall.

Madrid were not as dominant during the second half due to a large improvement from Atletico, as noted by beIN Sport’s David Cartlidge:

The home side played with greater intensity than in the first period and were able to get more players forward into the final third. The right-back Juanfran regularly moved upfield to take advantage of the space in behind Ronaldo, whom Carlo Ancelotti largely pardons from defensive responsibility.

Madrid were unable to create chances as easily as in the first half and Ronaldo’s only real opportunity came under significant pressure inside the area, as described by Atletico Fans:

His other two attempts on goal, one from a long way out, were both blocked. His overall shot map for the match, as per FourFourTwo StatsZone, tells the story of an encounter in which Atletico were able to prevent him from taking shots from good areas:

Courtesy of FourFourTwo StatsZone

Ronaldo’s performance was not viewed in a positive light in some quarters. AS (in Spanish) handed him a mark of one out of three in their post-match appraisal, while the Madrid fan blog Managing Madrid scored him five out of 10 and said that he had been “almost invisible.”

Nicholas Rigg of ESPN FC was a little more generous, giving him a score of seven out of 10.

Ronaldo had a few bright moments over the course of the match but was again kept relatively quiet by an Atletico side who appear to have hit upon an effective formula for limiting his influence in the final third.

Madrid will need more from their top scorer in next week’s second leg if they are to record their first victory in eight attempts against Atletico this season and progress to the last four of the Champions League.