Diego Alves Thwarts Real Madrid as Valencia Shackle Cristiano Ronaldo

Diego Alves saved a first-half penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo and produced numerous important saves as Valencia held Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu on Saturday.

Ronaldo had scored in four consecutive appearances against Valencia prior to Saturday’s game. Per J.L. Guerrero of AS (in Spanish), he was just one goal away from matching the Madrid tally of the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano.

And Valencia were acutely aware of the threat he was likely to pose. “Stopping him will give us a better chance of success,” Nuno said in his pre-match press conference on Friday, as per Julian Burgos of AS.

Valencia had set up with a three-man defence in their 2-1 victory at the Mestalla in January, with their centre-backs aggressively man-marking the three Madrid forwards. They did not allow Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema space to turn.

That was not, however, the approach they took on Saturday. They started in a 4-1-4-1 formation, with the line of four midfielders assisting Paco Alcacer in pressing high from the front. After establishing an early two-goal lead, they dropped back and focused on defending in a compact shape close to their own goal.

It was a tactic that was largely successful in open play—particularly so in shackling Ronaldo. Per FourFourTwo StatsZone, he had just five efforts on goal throughout the match, only one of which did not originate from a set piece. Sky Sports La Liga noted Ronaldo's performance:

Two direct free-kick attempts (one blocked, one off target), a header against the crossbar from a James Rodriguez corner and a saved penalty on the stroke of half-time completed his work for the evening in front of goal.

He almost spent more time on the floor than he did on the ball inside the final third.

Madrid did create some presentable opportunities in open play. Alves did really well to get a hand to Bale’s rasping effort from the edge of the area during the first half and also made two good stops from Javier Hernandez early in the second.

But most of the home side’s best opportunities and the first of their two goals (scored by Pepe) came from dead-ball situations. Rodriguez produced a string of quality deliveries into the centre of the area that caused numerous problems for the away defence.

Alves did, though, prove to be a formidable obstacle. Whenever Madrid hit the target, he was there to stop the ball from finding the back of the net. He made an excellent save from Sergio Ramos and another couple of slightly more routine stops in the final stages.

By then, he had of course already kept out Ronaldo’s penalty to extend his incredible record of saved spot-kicks during his time in Spain, as per @Pedritonumeros (h/t Dermot Corrigan).

Alves had been the villain in Valencia’s 1-1 draw with Rayo Vallecano at the back end of April, in which he allowed a tame, long-range effort from Adri Embarba to slip through his hands.

But he was his side’s hero—and Madrid’s nemesis—on Saturday, as Nuno acknowledged afterwards.

The draw leaves Madrid trailing Barcelona by four points with two matches left to play. The Catalans just need to win one of them in order to be crowned champions. Per Paul Carr of ESPN Stats & Info, that is now all but certain to be the outcome of the title race.

Carlo Ancelotti was, however, unwilling to completely give up hope when questioned in his post-match press conference (via Corrigan):

Realistically, however, attention must now turn to the second leg of the Champions League semi-final tie with Juventus on Wednesday.

Madrid have a 2-1 deficit to overcome and have to score at least once if they are to have any chance of progressing to the final. To do so they will have to increase the frequency with which they are able to get Ronaldo on the ball in dangerous areas.

It may have taken a stellar goalkeeping performance to prevent Madrid from taking all three points against Valencia, but they will have to be better in all areas if they hope to overcome the Italian champions.

Ronaldo survived serious recriminations from the Bernabeu crowd for his penalty miss against Valencia. But he will be expected to make the difference for his side on Wednesday.