Cristiano Ronaldo Has Scored In More Than 3/4 of His UCL Knockout Ties
He might not have been at his prolific best in La Liga this season, but Real Madrid superstar Cristiano Ronaldo proved on Wednesday night that he is still the man to count on in the Champions League after scoring twice in a crucial Last 16 victory over Paris Saint-Germain.
Given that back-to-back reigning champions Real could only finish second in their group, combined with a poor defense of their domestic crown and PSG's renewed dominance in France, many thought Los Blancos were in genuine danger as the last-16 tie kicked off.
That feeling became stronger when Adrien Rabiot gave PSG the lead with an invaluable away goal. But Ronaldo, who was already the competition's top scorer after netting nine goals in the group stage, equalized from the penalty spot - also his 100th Champions League goal since joining Real Madrid.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner then scored again in the 83rd minute to give Real the aggregate lead, before a goal from left back Marcelo ensured that the holders will have control of the tie ahead of the return leg in France early next month.
But for Ronaldo, now 33 years of age after recently celebrating his birthday, turning it on in the Champions knockout rounds is absolutely nothing new.
Since the Portuguese superstar moved to Madrid from Manchester United in 2009, becoming the world's most expensive player in the process, he has only failed to find the net in two-legged Champions League knockout ties on just six occasions out of 26.
Including this week, it means Ronaldo has scored at least once in 77% of Real Madrid's two-legged ties over a period of nine seasons. That he has managed to maintain such consistency on the biggest stage - a huge criticism of PSG on Wednesday - is nothing short of incredible.
Although Real were knocked out of the Champions League at the Last 16 stage in 2009/10, Ronaldo's debut season in Madrid, he scored the only goal in the 2-1 aggregate loss against Lyon. From there, he netted twice in the quarter final against Tottenham in 2010/11, before scoring at least once in every two-legged tie Real played in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14.
In the last of those seasons, Ronaldo also scored late in extra-time in the final against Atletico Madrid to cap a 4-1 Real win and seal the long awaited Decima.
Atletico managed to keep Ronaldo at bay in both legs of the 2014/15 quarterfinal, but he scored five times across the last 16 and semifinal ties that season.
Manchester City and Napoli actually shut him down in consecutive two-legged ties in the 2015/16 semifinal and 2016/17 last 16 respectively, but the player came roaring back with five goals over two legs against Bayern Munich in the very next round, the 2016/17 quarterfinal.
He scored three further goals against Atletico in that season's semi-final legs as Real won a never-before-seen third Champions League trophy in the space of just four years.
Even prior to donning the iconic all-white of Real, Ronaldo had scored in seven of the nine (78%) two-legged knockout that Manchester United played between 2006/07 and 2008/09, scoring nine goals across those games, plus once extra in the victorious 2008 final as well.
