UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Putting Bale and Ronaldo on the same level is only a harmless accountancy game, writes PAUL HAYWARD
HARRY REDKNAPP evened up the scores before this tie, calling Gareth Bale a €92 million footballer, just like Cristiano Ronaldo, who really was sold for that cosmic sum. To put the two lightning bolts on the same level is only a harmless accountancy game, and nobody was thinking about money as the two supposedly injured game-changers trotted out for this chaotic quarter-final first leg between the Los Blancos of England and Spain.
But then a fiend got hold of the script, inserting diabolical twists for Spurs. First an ex-Arsenal striker, Emmanuel Adebayor, put Real Madrid ahead inside five minutes, then Peter Crouch was dismissed for two bruising fouls when a quarter of an hour had passed. Crouch as Nigel de Jong? That’s a new one. Tottenham were off their axis.
As a big man trudged off, a big name decided he could have some fun. With the Londoners down to 10, Ronaldo jogged off the wing into the number 10 position and the siege was laid. Adebayor scored again after half-time, as Spurs became the second north London team in a month to be reduced to a spectating role in Spain.
Not that Bale accepted his team’s fate. No further confirmation was needed of his fighting qualities, but when he was restored to his best position at outside left he took the game to Madrid on his own. When Aaron Lennon dropped out minutes before the kick-off, Redknapp had switched Bale to the right to disrupt the Ronaldo-Marcelo partnership, with Luka Modric shunted to the left, which meant both Tottenham’s best players started out of position.
But Crouch’s departure for two over-eager challenges (the impact of the first was wildly exaggerated by the victim, Sergio Ramos) caused Jermaine Jenas to be moved to the right and Bale to swing back left, from where he attacked Ramos with gusto and courage.
The Bale-Ronaldo head-to-head was a nonsense in the sense that it implied equality between a 26-year-old world player of the year who has fetched €105 million in transfer fees and a 21-year-old who moved from Southampton to Spurs for €5.7 million and is still learning his business. Ronaldo has won the Champions League, three Premier League titles, an FA Cup and a Club World Cup. Bale’s medal collection is zilch.
All this is said not to disparage the most exciting wing man in the English game but to restore a sense of perspective to their clash in a game that overwhelmed Spurs despite Bale’s best efforts. Ronaldo was an out and out touchline-hugger in his development phase, at Manchester United, a super-quick David Beckham, but by the end he was a prolific central striker who drifted wide only to open up new opportunities or escape tight marking.
Bale is still an audacious, direct runner who puffs his lungs and strikes at the defender. He made no impact on the right but made up for it on the left, drawing a posse of Madrid defenders to his side with his first serious run, on 27 minutes. A sliding interception by Xabi Alonso stopped the gallop but two minutes later Bale was chesting the ball down, bursting into Real’s penalty box and firing into the side netting. Moments before the interval he was taken out by Ramos right in front of the Spurs dug-out and he left the field groggy and limping.
While defiance thrived on Bale’s side of the pitch, Ronaldo was carving out shooting positions for himself through the middle. In 14 Spurs versus United games Ronaldo had not lost one. No wonder he looked so smug. Too smug for Jose Mourinho, the Real coach, when Ronaldo declined to make a dart towards the left-corner post to open up an angle, and just watched the play. No player is to big to escape a Mourinho rebuke.
By now we were watching another version of Barcelona versus Arsenal: the Premier League team reduced to 10, the Spanish side monopolising the ball.
At least Robin van Persie made it beyond half-time. Crouch was gone in 14 minutes. With Bale still limping after a fall Angel Di Maria crashed in Real’s third. Ronaldo then scored their fourth. If the memory had a delete button, Spurs would be jabbing it hard.
Guardian Service
