Cristiano Ronaldo Has to Wait, but Real Madrid Can Be Pleased Winning Ugly

Last time out, it had been 4-0. The last time in the league, it had been 6-0. Before that, 5-0.

Last time out against Granada, it had been 9-1. The time before, 4-0.

Cristiano Ronaldo Has to Wait, but Real Madrid Can Be Pleased Winning Ugly

Cristiano Ronaldo Has to Wait, but Real Madrid Can Be Pleased Winning Ugly
Cristiano Ronaldo Has to Wait, but Real Madrid Can Be Pleased Winning Ugly

Last time out, it had been 4-0. The last time in the league, it had been 6-0. Before that, 5-0.

Last time out against Granada, it had been 9-1. The time before, 4-0.

In those five games, the three most recent against anyone and the two most recent against Saturday’s opponents, Real Madrid’s barbaric, mind-boggling aggregate score of 28-1 was perhaps only trumped by the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo had helped himself to 14 of the 28.

Fourteen.

In our preview of Saturday’s match here at Bleacher Report, therefore, we’d asked, “more of the same again, then?”

Over at Real Madrid’s official website, fans were asked in the buildup not whether Real would win, but by how many. “[That] showed us a lack of respect” said Granada manager Jose Ramon Sandoval afterward, per Marca.

It probably did, but it had also summed up what everyone was expecting: Ronaldo would notch his 500th career goal, overhaul Raul as Real Madrid’s all-time leading scorer and lead his team to another slaying of an Andalusian outfit whose attitude to defending has often been much like Chelsea striker Diego Costa’s attitude to self-restraint.

Well, that’s what was supposed to happen. But it didn’t quite work out like that.