Cristiano Ronaldo Must Reproduce Eibar Form for Real Madrid's European Dream

There is no longer any doubt Cristiano Ronaldo is in decline, but recent weeks have shown he can still produce key moments of quality to settle games.

In early April's Clasico, he scored the winner with his only real opportunity of the match.

With Barcelona struggling to keep up with Madrid as the game reached the final stages, Ronaldo controlled Gareth Bale's cross well at the back post before lashing it past Claudio Bravo.

He toiled for most of the rest of the match, unable to make an impact. But when it mattered most, Ronaldo scored.

And he now has 30 Primera Division goals this season, ramming home Madrid's third against Eibar as Los Blancos routed the visiting Basque minnows on Saturday.

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Real Madrid won 4-0, warming up for the second leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Wolfsburg in perfect fashion.

Ronaldo's strike meant he became the first player in history to score 30 goals or more in six consecutive seasons in La Liga.

Real manager Zinedine Zidane knows how important the match is; Madrid's season hinges on overturning the 2-0 defeat they suffered in Germany on Wednesday night.

On that occasion, Cristiano had no joy. Neither did anyone else, for that matter, but the Portuguese is held to a higher standard.

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Reporter Eduardo Alvarez gave him 5/10 on ESPN FC, writing: "Thought he had opened the score after only one minute of play, but the referee ruled it offside. Similar to most of his team, after Wolfsburg took the lead, Ronaldo lost intensity and struggled to bring Real Madrid back into the match. Saw a decent chance saved by Diego Benaglio in the second half."

Meanwhile, Sport wrote he was "quiet throughout, bar in his complaining after being fouled."

But against Eibar, he was playing well again, not only scoring himself but creating goals for Lucas Vazquez and Jese.

There are some who say Ronaldo is only playing for the golden boot. To some extent, that may be true. Logically, it would have made more sense to rest him here than to play him.

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Leaving him on the pitch for 90 minutes made matters worse too—there was no reason to have him out there with the team 4-0 up at half-time if not to fatten his goal tally.

It is not a problem unique to Madrid—Barcelona stars Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar also don’t like being rested or substituted.

But ahead of such an important clash, keeping Ronaldo on, particularly when he has reached an age where he needs to conserve his energy and pick his spots, was confusing.

Zidane said after the game he was going to take Ronaldo off before Jese showed signs of injury, per Goal: "I initially planned on subbing Cristiano out around 15 minutes before the end, but Jese felt pain so we took him out instead. But at the same time Cristiano is more than capable of playing for longer than 90 minutes."

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Ronaldo isn’t just a flat-track bully, as his goal in the Clasico demonstrated, but if Madrid are to obtain any silverware this season, the Portuguese star needs to put in performances like this in the key games.

Gareth Bale sat out the Eibar match. Luka Modric and Keylor Navas likewise. But Madrid’s talisman started.

The knives will be out if Ronaldo doesn’t play well against Wolfsburg on Tuesday night.