THERE WAS ANOTHER slice of Champions League history for Cristiano Ronaldo as Borussia Dortmund’s miserable campaign ended with a 3-2 defeat at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
Ronaldo, already the competition’s all-time highest goalscorer, became the first player in history to convert in all six group-stage matches when he gave Los Blancos a two-goal lead, but Lucas Vazquez clinched the win in the 81st minute after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s double levelled.
Borja Mayoral took just eight minutes to make the most of replacing the misfiring Karim Benzema as one of five changes by Zinedine Zidane, finding the back of the net for the first time in the Champions League.
Madrid’s blistering start continued as Ronaldo curled home his landmark effort one day before finding out if he will match Lionel Messi’s record of five Ballons d’Or, though Dortmund halved the deficit when Aubameyang punished the defending champions for over-playing at the back.
Aubameyang has never hidden his desire to play for Madrid and it would have been hard for the home fans not to admire the clever second-half chip over Keylor Navas that looked likely to earn Peter Bosz’s struggling side a draw.
Vazquez had other ideas, though, as the hosts, who were already guaranteed to finish second prior to kick-off, picked up their first win in three matches.
Dortmund pipped APOEL to a place in the Europa League despite an eighth outing in all competitions without a victory.
Elsewhere tonight, Maribor and Sevilla played out a 1-1 draw in Group E and the Spaniards advance as runners-up, three points clear of Spartak Moscow.
In Group F, Napoli will be playing in the Europa League next year after results didn’t go their way. Manchester City were beaten in Donetsk while the Serie A side suffered an away defeat to bottom side Feyenoord.
In Group G, Besiktas continued their unbeaten run with victory over RB Leipzig while Porto ensured second place after a resounding 5-2 win over Monaco. The French champions, incredibly, failed to win a game and embarrassingly suffer European elimination.
The42 has just published its first book, Behind The Lines, a collection of some of the year’s best sports stories. Pick up your copy in Eason’s, or order it here today (€10):
Sorry to hear of the family’s loss, I’m sure the systems he has setup can work well without him when it needs to
Best wishes joe, we’re all thinking about you and your family
@John: we’re not
@Pat Andrews:
If you commented you are thinking about him and his family
(Good Or Bad ??)
@Pat Andrews: d1ckhead
Ive a really mixed feeling on how will we do at the WRC. In one way i feel some of the pressure is off after a poor six nations. After NZ we needed to be brought back down to earth
@Donnacha Bhoicaire: Unpopular opinion but I think this Irish side peaked somewhere between late 2016 and late 2018. Two year cycles are about what you get in rugby these days, New Zealand being an exception. Don’t think they’ll ever drop back to the perennial ‘valiant in defeat’ team they once were, the structures in place are too good and there’s an excellent talent pool there. But it’s incredibly difficult to maintain performance levels the likes of which we’ve seen from them over the last 4-5 years. You’ve also had serious leaders retire and there are some ageing and injury prone legs in the preferred starting line-up these days. Can’t see Ireland getting past the QF’s again at this WC although I’d be happy to be proven incorrect.
@Quoka: spot on
@Quoka: I don’t think that’s unpopular at all, it’s more like consensus. Once again we’ve peaked between cycles and we’re arrived with a gameplan and a group of players a little bit past their best.
Whatever about the quarter finals I hope we’re fully awake to the threat of Scotland and the hosts since everyone seems to be talking about South Africa on presumptions of an easy group.
@Rochelle: it was nice of Joe to share the game plan for the World Cup with you.
Your not an Irish fan because it hurts that joe as an ex Leinster man is our coach. Your a bitter thing who’d rather see Ireland lose so you can blame joe sexton Healy etc
@Quoka: yea no yea, would be shocked to hit a semi.
@Donnacha Bhoicaire: It’ll be the same as it was before, we’ll come through the group really well, the media will lose the run of themselves and say how we should go all the way now that we beat the host nation and the best Scotland side in years, then we’ll lose to SA in the QF.
@Rochelle:
“the threat of Scotland”
What is different is that S A has made a great jump in standard:: When all these teams were selected (the pools set up ) S A were having a nightmare with poor coaches and the SA government sticking their noses in sport ::But they woke up and got a very good coach and the government stepped aside and SA was back up to where they always were :: So Ireland were placed in pools with teams below them at THAT TIME (we were 2 or 3 in the world) but things changed inside S A to bring us to this point ::To get passed into the SF we have to beat either now a very strong SA or NZ ( but first we have to win our pool::) So this year has become a very hard year !!
@Martin Quinn: With SA hitting form at the right time, I actually don’t think it matters whether we come 1st or 2nd in our group now
Okioki i runga i te rangimarie
@Paul: He is not Maori…
@Chris Thorne: How do you know he’s not?
@Eddie Hekenui: Just a guess which is probably right. Either way, it’s ridiculous saying it in Te Reo just because he is from New Zealand.
@Chris Thorne: He could be part Maori, have Maori family or the person who passed away might be Maori or part Maori. And regardless it’s just a nice thing to say and something that is said in New Zealand by many when there is a death. Nothing ridiculous about someone being decent and paying their respects.
@Eddie Hekenui: I’ve been to both pakeha funerals and Maori Tangi, and the only place I heard it was at the Tangi. So no, it is not said by many in New Zealand…
@Chris Thorne: And Maori’s make up what 15-20% of the population plus whatever percentage have Maori heritage or family. That’d be many people in my books. Plus I’ll say again you’ve no idea the heritage of the person who died. They might very well be Maori and regardless it’s just a nice thing to say. You’re just being needlessly obtuse.
@Quoka: I also feel we put too much stock in world rankings and November internationals. The world cup is really the best, arguably only, way to assess comparative strength between NH and SH, as the last world cup clearly shower.
@Alistair Fyffe: *clearly showed….
@Alistair Fyffe: i just hope Ireland has a November international this year .
Condolences to Joe and his family.