Cristiano Ronaldo’s first leg hat-trick had all but won Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final with city rivals, Atletico.
Still, Zinedine Zidane was never going to be taking any chances for the second leg, and named a strong lineup for the last meeting between the sides at the Vicente Calderon stadium.
After two goals in the opening few minutes for Atleti, Isco ended any hopes of what had seemed to be an unlikely comeback with the crucial away goal, minutes before half-time.
After Fernando Torres has fallen short in his attempts to intimidate Ronaldo, the Portugal captain was on the wrong end of some meaty challenges from the Atleti players. One in particular, coming from their captain, Diego Godin, caught the attention of many of those watching the game.
Jumping for a header, the Uruguayan slammed into the back of Ronaldo, as shown in the slow motion footage below.
https://youtu.be/Qzm9X0c9fRE
The sight of this footage (minus the music), during half-time of BT Sport’s coverage of the game, was enough to prompt a few mocking tweets from viewers that were unsympathetic towards Ronaldo being on the wrong end of Godin’s challenge.
According to a few accounts, the challenge had been enough to – momentarily at least – make Ronaldo look like his bust, which was unveiled at Madeira airport earlier this year.
Ronaldo finally looking his statue hahahah #ATMRMA pic.twitter.com/iz8a0dn3nu
— 🌙 (@belIerinaa) May 10, 2017
A slow mo of Ronaldo getting smashed in the face and for the first time he actually looked like his statue 👏🏼👏🏼
— Michael Timbs (@MichaelTimbs) May 10, 2017
NOW Ronaldo looks like his statue… pic.twitter.com/2Uw6BZ2vku
— Nathan (@nathan_irvine) May 10, 2017
https://twitter.com/JonnyblackWYS/status/862387286448713728?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mirror.co.uk%2Fsport%2Frow-zed%2Fhe-finally-looks-like-statue-10397788
Ronaldo had the last laugh, of course. Isco’s goal was the last of the night, and Real progressed to their second Champions League final on the spin.
