Cristiano Ronaldo scored one of the greatest goals of all time in the remarkable 4-0 victory for Portugal over Spain. However, the Real Madrid wing wizard was anything but happy after the goal was disallowed…
The goal came after a wonderful move where the ex-Manchester United player picked up the ball in the centre circle and ran onto the return ball through the left hand channel.
Driving straight at Gerard Pique, he turned him brilliantly while entering the box leaving the Barcelona defender lying flat on the ground after committing himself to a ball that was no longer there.
Ronaldo then turned inside to the edge of the six yard box and just as Xavi Alonso dived in to make the tackle the Portuguese amazingly lobbed the ball over Iker Casillas from just six yards.
Truly it was one of the greatest pieces of skill ever seen.
However…
Ronaldo had not figured on an offside Nani running in and heading his lob into the net as a stunned Casillas looked on helplessly.
Portugal’s number seven turned around to celebrate one of the most exceptional moments of his already packed career. He then saw the linesman’s flag and could not help his disappointment and disgust at his old United teammates idiocy.
Even though Portugal went on to beat the World Cup winners 4-0, Nani still felt obliged to apologise afterwards.
"I touched the ball because it I didn’t think I was offside," said a grovelling Nani. “I was running forward, the move was very fast. After thinking a while I apologised to Ronaldo; it was a brilliant play and I shouldn’t have spoiled it.”
On closer examination though; the ball appeared to be already over the line as the amazingly flighted ball was met by the unthinking Nani and it now looks as if Cristiano Ronaldo was denied a defining moment in his career.
"The goal was half a metre inside the net. I don’t understand why it wasn’t given. There are no words to explain it. Even a blind man could see it was a goal!” said an irate Ronaldo after the match.
Everyone remembers Pele’s blind pass to Carlos Alberto, Johann Cruyff’s unbelievable turn, Diego Maradona’s run from the halfway line against England, and George Best’s wonderful last goal against Benfica.
This would, without doubt, have become one of those moments.
Ever since making his debut with Manchester United in 2003 he has split opinion.
He is a player gifted with everything needed to become one of the games legends. Equally he is also equipped with a selfish self serving personality that can often derail his team’s game plan at the most important moment. Think Manchester United's loss to Barcelona in the Champions League final in 2009 and Portugal's defeat to Spain in the World Cup last June.
On his day it is almost impossible to play against him and since moving to Real Madrid his game, quite unbelievably, has moved onto another level entirely.
After delighting Manchester United fans for six years with 118 goals in 292 games he has scored an unbelievable 64 goals in 63 games for Real Madrid.
His goal scoring record at Los Blancos has seen him break every single record at the club and as it stands he has now bettered players like Alfredo Di Stefano and Brazil's Ronaldo.
The young boy from Madeira has come a long way since he broke the record at Sporting Lisbon where he became the only player in the clubs history to play for the U-16, U-17, U-18, B-Team, and First Team all within the space of one season.
There is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo Dos Santos Aviero is built to break records and if he continues developing his game he will go down as one of the greatest players ever to kick a ball. It's just unfortunate that he was denied a "moment" but given his proclivity for great goals and great skill it will surely come again and replace his wink at Wayne Rooney in 2006.
