Ronaldo brace beats Dortmund

Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Real Madrid stayed top of their Champions League with a 3-1 win at Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday.

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Gareth Bale also impressed on his return with a goal and assist to leave Dortmund without a point and already six behind Madrid and Tottenham Hotspur in Group H.

Madri welcomed back Toni Kroos and Bale, but Marcelo and Karim Benzema remained sidelined as  Nacho Fernandez continued at left-back.

Dortmund, meanwhile, started with former Barcelona man Marc Bartra in central defence but were without Marco Reus, who was still recovering from damaged knee ligaments.

Both sides drew 2-2 in their two group games last season and faced each other in the 2013 and 2014 quarter-finals.

Barely a ball was kicked when Dortmund drilled a low cross into Madrid’s six-yard area, but it was hacked away by a white shirt before a Schwarzgelben player could slide home.

Straight down the other end, Dani Carvajal was away in the clear down the right and flicked the ball past his marker, but his close-range strike was pushed away by Roman Burki.

Dortmund’s high line was caught out again as Cristiano Ronaldo squared the ball to Gareth Bale at the far post, but a home defender got just enough on his sliding block.

Nonetheless, Los Blancos took the lead when Carvajal’s diagonal ball into the box was expertly volleyed home by Bale first time with his instep.

The Welshman nearly grabbed a quick-fire second after he was slipped in behind by Luka Modric, but Burki just about caught his angled drive.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang prepared to pounce on a low cross in Madrid’s box, but it was toepoked away from the striker by Carvajal in the nick of time.

Aubameyang did knock a finish onto the post from near the penalty spot, but the linesman correctly raised his flag, with the striker offside by a whisker.

Sergio Ramos climbed highest to meet a corner seconds before half-time, but his header flew the wrong side of Burki’s far post.

Moments after Raphael Varane hacked a low cross off the line, Bale squared the ball on a silver platter for Ronaldo, who blasted home first time for 2-0.

However, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s persistence paid off as he flicked in a cross from the left for a Dortmund goal back.

Yet Gonzalo Castro couldn’t get his feet in check when he tried to round Keylor, before Luka Modric’s sliding finish from near the penalty spot fell straight to Burki.

A swirling ball then found Aubameyang at the far post, but his flicked volley whistled inches wide of Keylor Navas’ goal.

Barely a minute after Lukasz Piszczek needed to head off the line, Isco slammed a piledriver half-a-yard over from just inside the hosts’ box.

Ronaldo wasn’t so forgiving as he latched on to Modric’s through ball down the left and rifled an unstoppable drive across Burki for his fourth Champions League goal of the season.

Borussia Dortmund 1-3 Real Madrid

Aubameyang 54 (D) Bale 18, Ronaldo 49, 79 (RM)

Borussia Dortmund: Burki; Piszczek, Sokratis, Toprak, Toljan (Dahoud 60); Gotze (Pulisic 76), Sahin (Weigl 60), Castro; Yarmolenko, Aubameyang, Philipp

Real Madrid: Keylor; Carvajal, Varane, Ramos, Nacho; Modric (Ceballos 90), Casemiro, Kroos; Isco (Asensio 76); Bale (Vazquez 85), Ronaldo

Referee: Kuipers (NED)

Tags Borussia Dortmund
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