That’s one way to stop him, we suppose.
You’d have to feel for the Schalke defenders who will be tasked with trying to stop Cristiano Ronaldo tomorrow night.
Having watched the Ballon d’Or winner terrorise practically every single defence he’s encountered this season, one or two of them might require an extra roll or two of toilet paper in the dressing room in the lead up to kick-off. And that’s before they start worrying about Bale, Benzema, di Maria and the rest of the Real players.
Whatever the thoughts of the Schalke camp about how Real might be stopped, Spanish paper Marca have made it clear in no uncertain terms that it is the Portuguese superstar that should be the focus of most of their attention, using a Gulliver’s Travels theme to illustrate, quite literally, the size of the task at hand.
Normally, we’d suggest that a player might not be too happy with having their ego inflated to such a degree and having their individual importance taking precedence over that of the team, but this is Ronaldo we’re talking about and he’ll relish the chance to (Lilli)put the opposition in their place.
We’ll wait and see how it pans out and whether Schalke can at least leave the tie in the balance for the second leg, but their destruction by Ronaldo and Real, quite aptly under these particular circumstances, could well be Swift.
Hat-tip to Emmet Purcell for the heads up on this one
