In his recent form, Cristiano Ronaldo came into this game under the microscope. Lately, he has been under a lot of scrutiny especially after rival Gareth Bale opened the scoring with a great solo effort. Thankfully, the contest was settled by halftime with his eight minute hat trick and two more goals scored in the second half, brought Ronaldo a five-goal stint wearing a Madrid shirt. In the first case, the ball was arrowed into the first corner from a distance of 10 yards after James Rodriguez decided to flick it in his path.
The second was a successful poacher’s effort as Oier Olazabal, the Granada goalkeeper had pushed out Marcelo’s cross. The third appeared to be a 20-yard drive, which had a lot of power but seemed to go straight through the visiting keeper. It was recorded as the fastest hat trick from Ronaldo till now and also the fastest treble from a Madrid player in 55 years, disregarding penalties. Viewers had to wait till the half-time for his fourth goal. It was the diving header from almost on the line after Bale unselfishly decided to tee him up.
The fifth one turned out to be another header as a result of Luka Modric free kick. It seems that there could have been more goals but wasn’t possible as an anguished Ronaldo failed to turn decent chances from Alvaro Albeola and Gareth Bale. We could have witnessed a 7-0 stretch is CR7 was successful. He could have added another goal to his roster but sadly Granada centre-back Diego Mainz knocked the ball into his own net resulting in an 8-1 score.
Ronaldo finally satisfied himself with the repoker, as Spaniards call a five-goal. As a result, he now has 36 La-Liga goals for the season, four more than Barcelona’s Lionel Messi. Ronaldo’s breathtaking performance against Granada confirms the 30-year old Ronaldo’s supreme form when dealing with penalty box goal situations. It wasn’t a seven day resurrection for Cristiano Ronaldo as there are more difficult tasks to be faced in the coming weeks. All in all, it was a very pleasant Easter Sunday for Ronaldo and his fans.
As a fan of for a long time .
Look on the bright side.