Cristiano Ronaldo.
He scores a goal that nobody else could score and then he shows off abs that nobody else could boast to celebrate it. All in about five seconds work.
And in those five seconds, he created a mountain for his former club Manchester United to climb if they’re to progress to the last 16 stages of this season’s Champions League.
All he needed was five seconds. Because for the 64 minutes that preceded that five seconds of explosive pace and intense skill, Cristiano Ronaldo was on the periphery of everything in Turin.
He hadn’t seen a chance before that one and he never really threatened the United back four.
But unlike most, that doesn’t really bother him. He’ll still keep his head high in the sky and he’ll still be the same, deadly and ruthless Ronaldo whenever he even gets the slightest sniff of a chance no matter what has gone before.
And it was the same story, just a different Wednesday night in a different city in Europe.
From the moment Leonardo Bonucci spotted Ronaldo with something on his mind in behind Victor Lindelof, United were in bother.
The Italian centre half played a peach of a ball over the top and Ronaldo kept his eyes on it every millisecond of the way. He extended his right boot to meet it on arrival and sent it arrowing into the net behind David De Gea.
RONALDOOOO ⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️⚫️⚪️
He gets his first #UCL goal for Juventus and what a way to do it! #VMSport pic.twitter.com/h01FzEjd6W
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) November 7, 2018
Pure and utter perfection.
And then he celebrated, rubbing salt in United’s wounds, by kissing the Juventus crest and banging his abs.
Then United began climbing that mountain, with Juan Mata leading the charge with a work of art of his own.
Pogba followed it up, bundling in a scrappy one that was later credited as an Alex Sandro OG, but unlike Ronaldo and unlike the rest of the United players, he didn’t celebrate his goal.
PAUL POGBA CLUTCHHHHH https://t.co/id8UpaNCtN
— aims (@yungaims) November 7, 2018
Plenty of fans noticed a contrast between the reactions.
https://twitter.com/Onflood_/status/1060288222750826498
Pogba scores against juventus but does not celebrate out of respect but Ronaldo scored and showed us his packs
— Osunde andrew (@osundeandrew20) November 7, 2018
Pogba shows Ronaldo how it's done
— Wanga 🙂 (@Mwangolo_) November 7, 2018
