Real Madrid 4-0 Racing Santander. The long awaited home clean sheet

Real Madrid temporarily extended the lead over Barcelona to 13 points, after defeating Racing Santander at home by 4-0. Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema (twice) and Angel Di María were the goalscorers of a calm night at the Santiago Bernabéu.

Real Madrid snatched another victory for La Liga, after beating Racing Santander by 4-0, at the Santiago Bernabéu. José Mourinho's men were on a 7-game streak always conceding at least one goal at home, in fixtures for the Spanish League, but this time, Iker Casillas finally returned home with a clean sheet. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the opener, which was his 28th goal in La Liga and his 122th for Real Madrid. This goalscoring record obtained in only 2 seasons and a half, allows the Portuguese player to already surpass the legendary Juanito, who had scored 121 goals in 10 seasons for the Merengues. Karim Benzema with a brace and Angel Di María, who just returned from injury, scored the remaining goals of this game.

Cristiano Ronaldo game photos in Real Madrid vs Racing Santander
Real Madrid 4-0 Racing Santander goals and highlights:

The last time Real Madrid ended a game in the Santiago Bernabéu without having conceded a single goal, dated back to the 26th of October 2011, in a 3-0 victory against Villarreal, for La Liga. Since then, in a total of 11 games, coming from 7 fixtures for the Spanish League, 3 for the Copa del Rey and 1 for the UEFA Champions League, the Merengues have always been unable to keep their net untouched at the end of each of those games. José Mourinho had alerted a few days ago that this dangerous trend shouldn't continue anymore, specially with the UEFA Champions League around the corner. The Merengues players seem to have listened carefully to their coach's words, and managed to preserve a clean sheet in last night's 4-0 victory, against Racing Santander.

The first goal would arrive early in the game, but before that occurred, Cristiano Ronaldo still had a great opportunity to score from an header, after a corner taken by Xabi Alonso in the 5th minute, but the ball ended up hitting the post. Just 1 minute after that play, Ronaldo would hit the back of the net, with another header, but this time a lot closer to the goal line and with plenty of space to time his jump and make a proper contact with the ball. One goal behind, many people would expect Racing Santander to open their game and put more men upfront, but the Santander side never appeared to be interested in risking much.

After a few good goalscoring chances being wasted, Real Madrid would find themselves with one man up in the 39th minute, coming from an unfortunate incident to the visitors. Racing Santander player, Cisma, deflected a Cristiano Ronaldo cross on the right with his hand and the referee immediatly showed him the 2nd yellow card. If it was already being hard for Racing to reach near Real Madrid's area with 11 men, this sent off almost annihilated their chances of scoring a goal and there were still more than 45 minutes to be played at the Santiago Bernabéu.

As if it wasn't enough, just 5 minutes after being forced to play with one man less, Racing Santander saw Real Madrid extending the lead to 2-0, after a left-foot goal by Karim Benzema. It all started in a typical free-kick quickly taken by Xabi Alonso, which put Benzema almost in front of goal, allowing the Frenchman to score his first of the night. Half-time would then arrive a few instants after and Real Madrid already knew the victory was basically on their pocket.

With the UEFA Champions League game against CSKA Moscow scheduled for next Tuesday, Real Madrid predictably slowed the tempo of the 2nd half at the Santiago Bernabéu. One of the big moments of the night took place near the 63th minute, when Angel di María returned to competition, after having picked an injury in December 2011.

It was precisely the Argentinian who decided to shine a few minutes later, when the clock ticked the 73th minute and from a long range left-foot crossed shot that would only stop at the back of the net. Angel di María still leads La Liga in assists with 13 passes to goal, while Mesut Ozil is ranked 2nd, with 11 assists. Di María return is certainly good news for José Mourinho and Real Madrid, but in the other hand, it will probably make life harder for Callejón, as it significantly increases the competition for the winger position.

The last goal of the night was reserved for Karim Benzema and it took place already near the 90th minute. Just after a big miss by Angel Di María, Khedira collected the ball and passed it quickly to Benzema, who didn't lose time and fired up a powerful strike that the Racing Santander goalkeeper couldn't find a way to stop. The final 4-0 result had just been set and Real Madrid will now focus at 100% for this Tuesday's away game, for the UEFA Champions League, against CSKA Moscow. As a negative note of last night's match, both Di María and Cristiano Ronaldo ended the game with some physical complaints, but the injuries are probably not very serious and shouldn't prevent them from being a valid choice for José Mourinho's line-up on Tuesday.

Real Madrid line-up vs Racing Santander:

Goalkeeper: Casillas
Defenders: Marcelo, Varane, Pepe, Sergio Ramos
Midfielders: Xabi Alonso, Granero, Ozil
Attackers: Kaká, Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema

Match stats provided by www.ronaldo7.net
Real Madrid	vs	Racing Santander
4	Goals	0
3	Assists	0
23	Shots	8
9	Shots on goal	0
6	Corner kicks	4
16	Fouls commited	9
3	Yellow cards	2
0	Red cards	1
68%	Ball possession	32%

Real Madrid next game will be against CSKA Moscow for the UEFA Champions League, next Tuesday (21-02-2012). You can watch CSKA Moscow vs Real Madrid, but also Barcelona vs Valencia and Liverpool vs Brighton and Hove Albion, from our football live streams section. Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to be on the line-up against CSKA, even though he left the pitch against Racing with some physical complaints.

CSKA Moscow vs Real Madrid kick-off time (21-02-2012):

Jakarta (Indonesia) | GMT+7: 00:00 Spain (Madrid) | GMT+1: 18:00Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | GMT+0: 17:00Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | GMT-2: 15:00New York (United States) | GMT-5: 12:00Los Angeles (United States) | GMT-8: 09:00Beijing (China) | GMT-8: 09:00

Sources: ronaldo7.net / record.pt

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Cristiano Ronaldo Profile and Biography in English

Cristiano Ronaldo Profile and Biography in English

 

Full Name: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
Birth date: February 5th, 1985
Birthplace: Funchal, Madeira - Portugal
Height: 186 cm (1m 86cm)
Weight: 84 kg
Field position: Left/right winger, striker/forward
First professional club: Sporting Clube de Portugal
Career debut: October 7th 2002, against Moreirense
Current club: Real Madrid (since 2009)
International team: Portugal
International debut: August 20th 2003, against Kazakhstan
Nicknames: CR7, CR9

IMScouting - Scouting for the next Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo biography 1985-2012

Cristiano Ronaldo is the son of Maria Dolores dos Santos Aveiro (a cooker) and José Dinis Aveiro (a Municipal gardener). Many say that Ronaldo's humble family origins are the reason why CR7 manages to deal so well with the fame and spotlights he has nowadays. Cristiano Ronaldo has two older sisters, Liliana Cátia and Elma, and one older brother, Hugo.

Cristiano Ronaldo first steps in football/soccer were made in his amateur hometown club called Andorinha, when he was still 8 years old. A couple years later, CR7 moved to CD Nacional, one of the most known teams in Madeira, around his 10th birthday. But he didn't stay there for too long and the year after (1996), Ronaldo was persuaded to join Sporting Lisbon, one of the biggest clubs in Portugal.

It's now clear that 1996 was a turnaround year in Cristiano Ronaldo life. By joining Sporting CP, Ronaldo had to leave his family back in Madeira and start learning how to live on his own. CR7 trained with the youth team in the first years and in 2002, by the age of 16, he made his senior debut against Moreirense, in the Portuguese First Division. In that match, Ronaldo scored a brace and immediatly caught everyone's attention upon him. The European debut took place later on, in the UEFA Champions League qualifier match against Inter Milan.

By the age of 17, Cristiano Ronaldo really started to attract many attentions throughout the World, and his tremendous performances when playing for Portugal's Youth Team in UEFA's Under 17 Championship, made him one of the most promising stars of the moment. Among many other top clubs, Liverpool and Arsenal had some scouts on that tournament. Managers Gérard Houllier and Arsene Wenger were allegadly interested in signing Cristiano Ronaldo. However, it was revealed later that both clubs got a bit hesitant on betting in such a young player and Manchester United ended up to rush things and sign Ronaldo in the 2003 pre-season.

The moment Cristiano Ronaldo definately convinced a top club to sign him, was after a 2003 pre-season friendly match, between Sporting and Manchester United, in the inauguration of the "Estádio José de Alvalade" in Lisbon. The Portuguese side defeated the Red Devils by 3-1 and United players were said to be stunned by Cristiano Ronaldo's technique skills as well as his natural talent and kept talking about it on their way home. Rumors say that Sir Alex Ferguson had a chat with his team players and then decided to sign Cristiano Ronaldo, in a transfer fee around 15 million euros (£12.24 million pounds).

Cristiano Ronaldo's adventure in England, started with a memorable debut for Manchester United, coming in as a substitute against Bolton Wanderers and playing for around half an hour. Those 30 minutes are probably still in the memory of many Manchester United fans, since CR7 stunned everyone in the stadium and impressed the traditional harsh English media, with his dazzling dribbles and runs over the wing. Ronaldo scored his first goal for Manchester United, by taking a curled free kick, in a 3-0 win against Portsmouth, in November 2003. However, and despite several promising starts, Cristiano Ronaldo's first two seasons in Manchester United received mixed reviews. He got praised for his technique and skills, but he often got criticised for lacking consistency and poor decision making on the field, which seems to be a natural thing at the age of 17 and 18.

In the year of 2005, Cristiano Ronaldo's father, José Dinis Aveiro, died of an alcoholism liver disease. Ronaldo was 20 years old and that was one of his most difficult moments of his life. CR7 is said to not drink any alcohol as a consequence of what happened with his father.

Regarding the Portuguese National Team, Cristiano Ronaldo made his senior debut against Kazakhstan a few weeks later, just after being signed by Manchester United, in a match played in August 2003. CR7's first biggest tournament was the Euro 2004, organized by Portugal and Ronaldo managed to help his team reaching the finals, but ended up by being defeated by Greece. Cristiano Ronaldo photos in tears after the match were the Portuguese soul mirror that afternoon and those images got spread all around the World. A couple years later, in the World Cup 2006 played in Germany, Ronaldo was caught up in a very big controversy, after allegedly pressuring and influencing the referee to send off his Manchester United team mate and England's striker/forward Wayne Rooney, in the quarter finals clash between England and Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo ended up being used as the scapegoat for England's defeat in the World Cup and the hatred towards him the following season, could be seen on every stadium the Red Devils had to play. English fans showed CR7 how much they got upset with the World Cup elimination and started insulting and "booing" Cristiano Ronaldo on every match outside Old Trafford. That situation made CR7 think about leaving England and Manchester United. However, Sir Alex Ferguson managed to convince him to stay and, against all odds, Cristiano Ronaldo surprised everyone with a great season in the English Premiership League. Ronaldo was quoted saying: "All the boos and insults just motivate me training harder and playing better".

In 2007, Cristiano Ronaldo won the PFA Player and Young Player of the Year Award and was also voted Footballer of the Year, by the Football Writers Association. That same year and for the first time, Ronaldo also made up to the top 3 finalists for both the FIFA World Player of the Year trophy and the European Player of the Year award. Cristiano Ronaldo kept on his outstanding form in the 2007-2008 season and scored 42 goals in all competitions (31 in the English Premier League), allowing him to be voted again for the PFA Player of The Year and the Football Writers Footballer of the Year. CR7 rising performances allowed Manchester United to win two titles that season, those being the English Premier League and also the UEFA Champions League trophy, in which Ronaldo scored a goal in the final, after a superb header.

The 2008 year was definately Cristiano Ronaldo glory year at Manchester United and after having won the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo won the FIFA World Player of the Year (2008) and the European Player of the Year (2008). In the 2008-2009 season, Cristiano Ronaldo scored another 26 goals, which helped Manchester United to win another English Premier League title and reaching again the final of the UEFA Champions League, in which they ended by losing against Barcelona this time, by 0-2.

In 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo broke another record by becoming the World's most expensive football player, after transfering from Manchester United to Real Madrid in July 2009, in a £80 million pounds transfer (around 94 million euros and 132 million US dollars). That was an historic moment, and more than 80 000 fans received and welcomed Cristiano Ronaldo in the Santiago Bernabéu stadium, during his official presentation. Ronaldo's career in Real Madrid started well, scoring plenty of goals on his first matches and only getting stopped by his first injury, in October 2009. However, CR7 recovered his form a few months later and still managed to score 33 goals on his first season playing for Real Madrid, which unfortunately, didn't prove to be enough for the club to win any trophies in the 2009-2010 season.

As for the Portuguese National Team, Cristiano Ronaldo captained Portugal at the 2010 FIFA World Cup played in South Africa, but the "Lusitanos" got eliminated in the last 16, against the future World Champions, Spain, getting defeated by 1-0.

In the 3rd of July, 2010, Cristiano Ronaldo announced on his facebook page that he had become a father. The information shocked many fans since there's still a big mistery nowadays, on who is the mother of the Cristiano Ronaldo's son. CR7 requested privacy and named his son with his own name, Cristiano Ronaldo Junior. The child is currently in Ronaldo's full custody, while being helped by his mother and sisters.

In the 2010-2011 season, Cristiano Ronaldo had an outstanding personal performance, breaking several all-time records, not only in Real Madrid, but also in the Spanish League. Ronaldo scored 41 goals in La Liga, breaking the previous 38 goal record set by Hugo Sanchez and Telmo Zarra. CR7 scored a total of 54 goals and once again, won the Golden Boot award, beating Lionel Messi in the way, who finished the season with 53 goals. However, not everything was perfect, since Real Madrid only won the Copa del Rey and failed to conquer the Spanish League and the UEFA Champions League.

At the end of the 2011-2012 season, we'll update this biography and Cristiano Ronaldo life story.

Very few players can shoot like Cristiano Ronaldo

Rogério Ceni, one of the truly living legends in football, got invited by Real Madrid to visit the club's training center, for a period of 2 weeks. The Brazilian goalkeeper is currently recovering from a shoulder injury but didn't lose the chance to praise José Mourinho and Cristiano Ronaldo.

São Paulo legendary goalkeeper, Rogério Ceni, payed a visit to Real Madrid facilities earlier this week and lauded not only José Mourinho, but also the club's biggest star, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Brazilian international player still holds the World record for the goalkeeper with the most goals scored in the history of football, with an impressive amount of 103 goals, from a mix of penalty-kicks and free-kicks. Therefore and despite being a goalkeeper, Rogério Ceni is certainly one of the best qualified persons in the game to assess a good free-kick taker, since he not only knows how to score from them, but he's also great at stopping them. When analyzing Cristiano Ronaldo's shooting technique, Ceni agrees that it is pretty unique and that very few players in the World are capable of doing something similar.

Rogério Ceni video with all his 103 goals for São Paulo:

The 39 years-old Brazilian goalkeeper, started by talking about Real Madrid's coach, José Mourinho, who he ranks as the best football manager in the World. Rogério Ceni: "Mourinho has been on the elite for a long time. He has been coaching big teams in Europe for almost 10 years, as it was the case with Chelsea, Inter Milan and now Real Madrid. What's remarkable is that he always finds a way to reach finals and then he wins them", noted the São Paulo goalkeeper, when talking to the journalists in Madrid.

Rogério Ceni: "José Mourinho is not only the best coach in the World right now, but also one of the best in the History of football. He truly is amazing. I'm a big fan of the way he approaches his players, the intimacy he creates with them and how he deals with the press. All these factors are tremendously important for generating a good atmosphere in the locker room", pointed Ceni, remembering Mourinho's experience with the media in 3 different leagues, such as the English, Italian and now the Spanish one.

When asked to share his opinion on what he thinks about Cristiano Ronaldo, Rogério Ceni preferred to highlight the Portuguese shooting technique, specially when CR7 takes free-kicks. Rogério Ceni: "The way he prepares and stands before a free-kick is quite unusual and different from the rest of the players. I really don't know how he pulls it off, but he's special. Ronaldo makes contact with the ball from a front stance and he does it so quickly that the ball never takes a predictable trajectory, which makes goalkeepers to really struggle to stop it."

Rogério Ceni: "It's very hard to shoot like that and very few players in the World can do it in a similar way. I can remember of Marcos Assunção and Juninho Pernambucano from Brazil, who indeed have a resembling style", analyzed Rogério Ceni, when looking at the shooting technique Ronaldo puts in motion on his free-kicks. Despite the the praises, the Portuguese player only scored 1 goal for Real Madrid from a free-kick shot this season, in a game against Olympique Lyon, for the UEFA Champions League. You may check more stats on CR7 here: Cristiano Ronaldo stats.

Real Madrid next game will be against Racing Santander for La Liga, next Saturday (18-02-2012). You can watch Real Madrid vs Racing Santander live for La Liga, but also Chelsea vs Birmingham online and Sunderland vs Arsenal free for English Premier League, from our football live streams section. Cristiano Ronaldo is expected to be on the line-up against Racing, in the next Saturday's game.

Real Madrid vs Racing Santander kick-off time (18-02-2012):

Jakarta (Indonesia) | GMT+7: 02:00 Spain (Madrid) | GMT+1: 20:00Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | GMT+0: 19:00Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | GMT-2: 17:00New York (United States) | GMT-5: 14:00Los Angeles (United States) | GMT-8: 11:00Beijing (China) | GMT-8: 11:00

Sources: ronaldo7.net / record.pt / realmadrid.com

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Cristiano Ronaldo extra features

Cristiano Ronaldo extra features

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