Cristiano Ronaldo sparks Atletico Madrid self-doubt as Manchester United superstar eyes Paris redemption

The Portuguese strikes fear into most Atletico Madrid fans after tormenting them across five successive seasons (2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019) in the knock-out stages of football’s most prestigious club tournament

Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United in action during a first team training session (Getty)

Cristiano Ronaldo is not one for self doubt, but even he felt some relief on Saturday evening.

After a difficult few months at Manchester United, where the logic of the transfer was again questioned, the Portuguese was finally doing what he was signed for.

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Ronaldo was once more the goalscorer, once more the hero. Another defeated team felt that familiar deflation, from one of his thunderous headers.

It is a feeling Atletico Madrid know too well. It is an image Atletico Madrid know too well.

As Sunday’s match at Stamford Bridge emphasised, football has a funny way of bringing many different threads to really energise a fixture, and Tuesday’s Champions League second-leg match at Old Trafford is a perfect example of that. This one, at least, is almost entirely based on events on the pitch.

There, Ronaldo has mostly been underwhelming. That was true of the 1-1 draw in the first leg of this last-16 tie.

The Metropolitano crowd loved that, given how much pain he has inflicted on them over the years.

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates during his iconic comeback win with Juventus over Atletico Madrid (Getty Images)

But he’s now come to form at an ominous time, in a competition he has still been revelling in.

Even if it’s true that some of Manchester United’s group-stage issues were down to trying to accommodate Ronaldo, he offered the solution to those problems by scoring the goals that put the side into the last 16.

Figures at other clubs do still have that lingering fear that the Portuguese can help United put one of those runs together. This is the Champions League. It’s happened enough times before, most notably 2005, 2012 and 2021.

This is also the competition that has seen Ronaldo inflict the most pain on Atletico. Much has been made of the statistic that Simeone’s side have been eliminated from the knock-outs by sides featuring Ronaldo in five successive seasons: 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019 - the Madrid side dropped out in the group stage in 2018 before winning the Europa League.

It is the last of those that will loom over Atletico most, given it is closer to the Ronaldo we see now.

Debates were starting to rise around Juventus over whether he actually fitted the team, with the evidence for that seen in a dysfunctional 2-0 defeat in the first leg in Madrid. It looked like the beginning of the end. And maybe it was. It just could be a pretty long end, as Ronaldo again finished Atletico with a hat-trick for a 3-0 win.

Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates during his iconic comeback win with Juventus over Atletico Madrid (Getty)

They will have noted his performance on Saturday with trepidation.

Simeone knows more than anyone these games shouldn’t be played out in the mind, despite his club being more subject to hang-ups and ghosts than most. He has done more than anyone to resist them, by pushing successive teams to their limits, through the most sophisticated defensive organisation.

If anyone can limit the 2022 Ronaldo, even when he’s on a surge, it is Simeone.

He also no longer needs Atletico to sit back deep to do it. The era of away goals approaches is now gone.

“The way we both play, I imagine it will be a dynamic game,” Simeone said. “A game where there will be alternative moments.

“We’ll press high. It will be the classic type of match you expect in a game like this, the vertigo you suffer sometimes when a team plays at home.”

There will be a vintage excitement at Old Trafford, but also a certain pressure.

This could well decide their season, and maybe Ronaldo’s second stint at the club - for now.

So much has been bound up in the Champions League, not least the Portuguese’s main contribution so far.

It is where he has done his best work.

After a week of speculation about his future at Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo responded in characteristic fashion (PA)

The league hadn’t been so sparkling until Saturday, with that compounded by the reality that reaching the Champions League again would be seen as the bare minimum. It wouldn’t be an “achievement”, even in these circumstances.

A run to Paris, though? That is the one potential source of salvation and redemption.

It might also seem a source of mirth right now. United just do not look good enough.

The truth is the Champions League has thrown up more improbable feats, though. Ronaldo has been responsible for many. Just ask Atletico. He has caused them plenty of self-doubt.