Real Madrid continued their excellent home record under new manager Zinedine Zidane after a swashbuckling performance saw them thump 6 goals past a hapless Espanyol at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday.
Portuguese sensation Cristiano Ronaldo scored yet another hattrick for the Los Blancos to take his season’s tally to 28 in all competition. Goals from Ronaldo (3), Karim Benzema, James Rodriguez and an Oscar Duarte own goal saw Zidane accumulate his third successive home win since taking over from Rafa Benitez in early January.
Ronaldo has come under increasing criticism recently from some sections of the media for only scoring against some of the so called “smaller teams” while failing to hit the same heights against more quality oppositions. Interestingly, 50% of Ronaldo’s goals this season (14) have come against Espanyol in La Liga and Swedish club Malmo in the Champions League.
Football fans took this opportunity to hail as well as berate Cristiano Ronaldo in the aftermath of Real Madrid’s win over Espanyol for his bipolar scoring pattern this season.
82′ ¡¡GOOOOL GOOOOL GOOOLLLL de @Cristiano!!
¡Hat-trick! ⚽⚽⚽#RMLiga #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/o9IYnR6n9S
— Real Madrid C. F. (@realmadrid) January 31, 2016
Hat-trick hero! Cristiano Ronaldo scored three as third-placed Real Madrid hit six in Spain. #UCL pic.twitter.com/hCkIaBIGjm — Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) January 31, 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo in his Real Madrid career:
• 328 Games
• 343 Goals
• 94 Assists
¡Hala Madrid! pic.twitter.com/RX6tVC1ftA
— RMadridHome (@RMadridHome) January 31, 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo scored more goals against Espanyol this season than Espanyol scored against Real Madrid in 7 years. — Michael Yokhin (@Yokhin) January 31, 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo extends his own record with his 29th La Liga hat trick in Real Madrid’s 6-0 win. pic.twitter.com/DELSc0DTA4
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 31, 2016
8 – @Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player to have scored eight goals against the same opponent in a league season in this century. Thunder. — OptaJose (@OptaJose) January 31, 2016
Hat-trick!
Cristiano Ronaldo this season:
vs. Espanyol and Malmo: 14 goals
vs. All other teams: 14 goals pic.twitter.com/FuPsG1l5zP
— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) January 31, 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 18 Liga goals this season. 7 against Espanol 39% None of them against Top 6 Teams. pic.twitter.com/wbgJwLY6kC — Leo Messi (@messi10stats) January 31, 2016
Ronaldo’s locomotion is so bad, one of the most overrated dribblers of history
— MC (@mediocentroEN) January 31, 2016
See the breakdown of Ronaldo’s goals this season for yourself. 19 goals in 6 matches against Espanyol/Malmo/Shakhtar pic.twitter.com/hNik8kQ3ey — Juan (@socraticjuan) January 31, 2016
@messileftfoot
Ronaldo:8 vs Espanyol
:6 vs Malmo
:5 vs shakhtar
Sure knows how to weep the minors though
— _Meve_ (@TanureM) January 31, 2016
Ronaldo has scored 18 Liga goals but not a single one of them against top 6 position teams… pic.twitter.com/1XO0nMeNyc — Neymar Jr. (@NeyMarvellous) January 31, 2016
