Five reasons why Real Madrid are weak without Ronaldo

– The Los Blancos could not score against City because Ronaldo did not feature

– Ronaldo has always saved his club from goal scoring problems in the past

– Real Madrid will speed up Ronaldo’s recovery to full fitness for the second leg

For the second time this season Real Madrid has failed to score in a Champions League match which is unusual for a team boasting a player with 16 goals in eight games this season.

That player is Cristiano Ronaldo who bagged hat-tricks against Malmo, Shaktar Donesk and Wolfburg.

Madrid celebrates Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo, for many reasons has been the success behind Madrid’s potency in front goal in the Champions League with his latest hat-trick coming against Wolfsburg canceling a two-goal deficit in their quarter-final second leg clash at the Santiago Bernabeu.

However the talking point was the absence of the Portuguese in the semi-final first leg match against Manchester City as the Los Blancos fired blanks.

Ronaldo was ruled out owing to an injury he sustained in a La Liga game against Villareal on April 20.

Here are the five reasons Madrid could not convert their scoring chances against the Citizens;

1) Lucas Vasquez
There is no player who can fit into the shoes of the Madrid Legend and the pressure of the Spanish teenager who barely caused a treat to the Vincent Kompany led Manchester City defence could not replace the scoring streak of Ronaldo.

Ronaldo celebrates his goal with coach Zidane and Sergio Ramos

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2) Benzema’s performance
Benzema admitted that his game has improved playing together with Ronaldo so the pressure of scoring goals does not really lie on the French man as Ronaldo’s scoring streak in Real Madrid does not give so much concern about Karim’s performance.

Benzema and Ronaldo celebrating after scoring a goal

Benzema is usually wasteful in front goal but he rarely had a chance against City and the only half chance he had went sky high.

3) Set piece not utilized
Madrid would have been three goals up owing to the Joe Hart brilliant strings of saves which kept City in the contest as Ramos, Pepe and Casimero all failed to score from set pieces.

Ordinarily the chances that came from the resulting corners would have been put at the back of the net by Ronaldo as his greatest goals mostly comes from aerial duels.

4) Lack of hunger and drive in the attack
Madrid’s push for goals by the front three was not really fired up. The likes of Bale, Vasquez, and Benzema never caught City’s defence on the counter because their attacking formation was built gradually from the defence and midfield.

5) No game changer
One of the criteria used in picking a valuable player is the ability to change the course of a game with a stroke a genius.

Ronaldo poses with his European golden boot

The entire Madrid squad was lacking because nobody could replicate what the talented the five-star-performance showed when he emphatically canceled the two goal deficit against Wolfburg and added another to seal victory unfortunately he was missing in action at Etihad.

Madrid fans all over the world are craving for Cristiano Ronaldo to feature in the second leg at the Santiago Bernabeu believing it is their only chance of going through to Milan for the finals

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