The staggering stats behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s rivalry with Atletico Madrid ahead of Man Utd’s Champions League clash
CRISTIANO RONALDO will welcome Manchester United’s trip to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The 37-year-old boasts a quite remarkable record against the Spanish giants – which he built up during his nine years at Real Madrid and later on at Juventus.
Ronaldo, who first faced Atletico during his opening campaign at Real in 2010, has scored a ludicrous 25 goals in 35 games against them.
The only team he has racked up more goals against is Sevilla – 27.
But the Portuguese legend has only managed one assist against Sevilla – compared with the five he has accumulated against Atletico.
This takes his goal contributions against the LaLiga champions to 30 – more than any other side he has encountered.
Ronaldo has also registered a breathtaking four hat-tricks in games against Diego Simeone‘s men.
Three of those came in a Real Madrid shirt – in 2012 and two in 2017 – before he bagged a crucial treble in Juventus’ 3-2 aggregate win over Atletico in the 2018-19 Champions League last 16.
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But the big moments which stick in the mind against Atletico came in the 2014 and 2016 Champions League finals.
Eight years ago, he netted Real’s fourth as they triumphed 4-1 over Atleti in Lisbon.
Then two years later, Real got the better of their Madrid rivals once more on Europe’s grandest stage.
This time Ronaldo scored the winning spot kick as they secured a 5-3 victory on penalties.
In total, he has won 16, drawn 10 and lost nine games against Atletico.
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Now he will be hoping to add to his tally when he comes up against them with Man Utd in the last 16 on Wednesday night.
The Red Devils have only reached the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier competition once since 2014.
On that occasion they came from 2-0 down to beat PSG on away goals, before losing to Barcelona in the last eight.
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