Cristiano Ronaldo; a nightmare for the Bundesliga big boys
The Real Madrid forward has bagged 26 in 22 games against German opposition and hit five past Bayern Munich in last season's quarter-finals.
There is little in European football that Cristiano Ronaldo has not achieved, and many of his greatest moments in the Champions League have come at the expense of Bundesliga sides.
The Real Madrid forward has scored 26 times in 22 games against German opposition, averaging 1.18 goals per game.
Bayern Munich will be tasked with preventing the Champions League top-scorer from adding to that tally on Wednesday in the Allianz Arena and the home side have plenty of cause for concern when Ronaldo rocks up in Bavaria – they are one of his favourite victims in European competition.
Ronaldo's record against Bayern
Ronaldo has scored nine times in six games against Bayern and has been a thorn in the side of the Bundesliga giants in recent seasons. Last year, in the quarter-finals, the Portuguese hit five across two legs, two in the Allianz Arena – where Javi Martínez’s attempts to stop him resulted in the Spain international being sent off – and a hat-trick in the return in the Bernabéu to eliminate Carlo Ancelotti’s side as Real ran out 6-3 winners on aggregate.
Two seasons earlier, Ancelotti had Ronaldo to thank on the march to the Décima for his part in seeing off three Bundesliga sides en route to the final. Schalke were on the wrong end of a 9-3 aggregate thrashing in the last 16 with Ronaldo contributing four goals, and the Portuguese found the net again in the next round as Real defeated Dortmund 3-2 over two legs, the number seven’s 57th-minute goal in the Bernabéu eventually marking the difference in a tight contest.
In the semi-finals, Ronaldo scored twice as Real completed a 5-0 aggregate rout of Bayern.
Heynckes: "Hopefully it will not be his day on Wednesday”
Ronaldo’s scoring record against German sides is beaten only by his 10 goals in European competition against Juventus but Munich holds a special place in his personal history in the competition after he netted his 100th European goal there last season. He also holds the record for the most goals scored in the semi-finals with 19 and has found the net in every game in the competition this season, another personal first, with three of them coming against Dortmund in the group stage.
“He is always decisive,” noted Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes ahead of the game. “Hopefully it will not be his day on Wednesday.”
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