Back in the summer of 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United for his boyhood favourite club Real Madrid. The cost of the transfer was £80m, which was a world record transfer fee at the time.

Fast forward five years and Ronaldo has almost done it all with Los Merengues. He has won La Liga, two Copa del Rey’s and a Supercopa de Espana. In 245 matches for Real he has smashed in a whopping 251 goals. Just this January he pipped his nemesis Lionel Messi to take his second Ballon d’Or award.

Ronaldo’s stats with Real Madrid are clearly phenomenal and his trophy cabinet will almost be bursting at the hinges.

But one ambition remains unachieved. Cristiano has still to clinch a Champions League final triumph with his beloved club.

Real have been sitting on nine European Cup wins for twelve years now and the club are desperate to secure that historic tenth title!

A lot of their hopes are pinned on Cristiano and his ability to take the game to opponents and almost win matches single handedly.

Real’s number seven is almost the complete/perfect forward. He has immense pace, can strike with both feet, head the ball, take deadly set-pieces, dibble around and away from defenders and set up chances for others as well as grabbing the vital strikes himself.

The final this year is in Lisbon, a city Ronaldo knows well. He is the footballing king of Portugal at the moment and he played for Sporting Lisbon in his early days.

So many believe that the stars are aligned for Cristiano Ronaldo to make history in his home country and seal a tenth Champions League title for Real Madrid.

But one mans team still stand in the way of Ronaldo and the rest of the Galacticos. That man is Diego Simeone and his team, Real’s capital city rivals, Atletico Madrid!

Obviously the two sides have previous. But after being in Real’s shadows for so long, El Atleti have now started to wake from their slumber.

Last season, Simeone guided his side to a famous win over Real in the Copa del Rey. That success ended a huge winless streak for the smaller Madrid side, they went fourteen years without a victory over their neighbours.

This season Real got some revenge in the Copa del Rey by handing Atletico two defeats in both legs in the semi final stage. But more importantly for Argentine coach Simeone, in La Liga he managed to beat Real at the Bernabeu and get a draw in the home fixture. Those two results helped keep Atletico ahead of their rivals, plus Barcelona, in the league and that meant they could secure the Spanish league title for the first time in eighteen years (when Diego Simeone played for the club).

Atletico’s success was all built on the squad and their ability to work together as a team. Obviously they have had star players: Diego Costa, Thibaut Courtois and Raul Garcia to name but a few. But to win that important La Liga title the squad’s strength and togetherness was the key component.

To stop Ronaldo plus his mates Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, Angel di Maria and Luka Modric, Los Rojiblancos and their players will have to summon up one last gutsy, energetic and controlled performance as they try to make their own piece of history and give Atletico their first Champions League triumph.

The game might be more blood and thunder than silky, fluid football but both teams will go all out to make Lisbon their own part of Madrid and get their hands on the famous trophy.

For me? Well I believe that Ronaldo and Co will help Real Madrid edge past Atletico and see Los Blancos toast a tenth European Cup success.

But whatever happens, I hope you all enjoy the game!

Posted on May 24th, 2014 by scott
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