He could not quite get his head around it.
Cristiano Ronaldo will tell you that he definitely meant to volley home his penalty kick against PSG. He will almost have you convinced too.
Real Madrid defeated PSG 3-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Champions League Last 16 clash. Ronaldo scored a brace and his first came from the spot in memorable circumstances.
As the 33-year-old planted his left foot beside the ball, it jumped up slightly from the turf. It meant the ball was airborne when Ronaldo followed through with his right-footed strike.
Some football fans simply bowed down to the majesty and mystique of Ronaldo. Others debated and contested that it was merely a fluke and that the Madrid forward did not mean it.
Well, Rio Ferdinand and Wayne Rooney are firmly in the believers’ camp. Both men trained and played with Ronaldo during his Manchester United days and both have claimed witness to such penalty-volley feats.
Rooney has mentioned it in one of his autobiographies and Ferdinand, on BT Sport last night, told the watching world that Ronaldo had previous.
BT host Gary Lineker took some convincing, though…
FERDINAND: “He used to do that in training you know.’
LINEKER: “Oh stop it!”
FERDINAND: “He used to mess about in training and do it but to do it in a game, I’m not saying he means it there, but he used to do it.”
LINEKER: “Like, deliberately?”
FERDINAND: “Yeah, I swear to you.”
LINEKER: “Really?”
FERDINAND: “Crazy, but he used to do it.”
LINEKER: “Cor, if I did that I’d knock it about 30 yards over the bar!”
Get on board Gary. It’s good to believe in magic.
The only way Ronaldo can satisfy is all, now, is to repeat the trick in the second leg, in Paris.
Is that too much to ask?!
