Ronaldo: Vain even when in pain
Real Madrid superstar more concerned with his looks after getting a bloody cut on head during 7-1 win
| REAL MADRID | DEPORTIVO |
| 7 | 1 |
Cristiano Ronaldo took his obsession with his image to new heights as he examined his bloodied face on the mobile phone of a Real Madrid medical staff member while walking off the pitch towards the end of a 7-1 win over Deportivo La Coruna on Sunday.
Ronaldo scored twice against Deportivo to help ease Real’s recent crisis but paid a heavy price for his second goal in the 84th minute as opposing defender Fabian Schar kicked the Portuguese forward in the face as he leapt to net his side’s sixth goal of the game.
The 32-year-old Portuguese superstar, who once claimed people were envious of him “because I’m rich, handsome and a great player”, was left with his entire face drenched in blood and required treatment on the pitch immediately after scoring.
The club’s doctors declared him unable to continue for the remainder of the game even though Real had used their three changes. As Ronaldo walked towards the dressing room, his main preoccupation was with how his face looked.
He asked one of Madrid’s medical staff if he could use his phone and was seen using the mobile’s screen to scrutinise his face, which was left as red as the shirt of his former club Manchester United.
Real had lost two of their last three league games and got off on the wrong foot against relegation-threatened Deportivo when former Atletico Madrid forward Adrian Lopez put the visiting side ahead against the run of play in the 23rd minute.
REAL COMEBACK
The stumbling La Liga champions responded in emphatic fashion, however, and went on to record their biggest win of the season in all competitions with two goals apiece from Gareth Bale, Nacho Fernandez and Ronaldo as well as a long-range strike from Luka Modric.
With the win, Real climbed back above Villarreal into fourth place on 35 points but are still far behind runaway leaders Barcelona, who thrashed Real Betis 5-0 with doubles by Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez to open up an 11-point gap on second-placed Atletico.
“The players needed a game like this,” Real coach Zinedine Zidane said.
“I don’t know if much changed apart from the scoreline and that’s the biggest difference. We played well against Villarreal (in our last match despite losing 1-0) and we were doing well when we were losing 1-0 today but we got the equaliser and I’m delighted with what we did in the rest of the game.”
Real began the season with a comfortable win away to Deportivo and could hardly have asked for better opponents than the struggling Galician side to get them out of their miserable run of form, even though Depor struck first.
In-form defender Nacho lashed Madrid level after playing a one-two with Marcelo and then Bale produced a brilliant curled finish off the post to put Real in front as halftime approached.
Bale stretched his side’s advantage after the interval by leaping to head in Toni Kroos’s corner, scoring a sixth goal in seven league starts which proved his persistent muscle injuries have not harmed his striking prowess.
Ronaldo had had little luck in front of goal at that point but quickly stole the headlines with two strikes in six minutes and departed the pitch using a mobile phone to examine his blood-drenched face. – Reuters
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