It would have been good to share the plaudits a little more widely, but Cristiano Ronaldo retained his place in the Primera Liga spotlight on Tuesday night, hitting the target four times as Real Madrid came from a goal behind to defeat Elche 5-1 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Just three days after hitting a hat-trick for Los Blancos in their 8-2 victory at Deportivo La Coruna, Ronaldo went one better to take his season’s tally to 12 goals in eight appearances in all competitions, including nine in four games in La Liga. With his goal against Basel in the Champions League, Ronaldo has scored eight of Madrid’s 18 goals in their last three outings.
After a slow start to the new campaign, the win over Elche left Madrid in fifth place in La Liga, five points behind leaders Barcelona after the Catalans were held to a goalless draw at Malaga.
Much of the blame for Real Madrid’s patchy early-season form has been attributed to their defensive frailties, with Coach Carlo Ancelotti boldly and publicly dropping Iker Casillas to hand Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas his debut for the European champions against Elche. Now, in the light of his side’s goal glut, the Italian’s concerns seem oddly misplaced.
While Ronaldo was the undoubted star against Elche, the key to his prolific form has been the interplay with his teammates, most notably Gareth Bale who, moving into the central attacking role in the absence of Karim Benzema, restored parity for Madrid after Edu Albacar had given Elche a surprise early lead from the spot after a foul by, of all people, Ronaldo.
Ronaldo gave Los Blancos the lead with a penalty before heading in Marcelo’s cross to make it 3-1. The Portuguese, always at the centre of the action, was brought down by Mario Pasalic late in the second half, and duly converted the spot-kick to seal his treble. Finally, he laid the icing on the cake with his fourth, running onto Bale’s through ball in injury time.
Ronaldo’s quadruple against Elche took his remarkable goalscoring record to 186 in La Liga, putting him level with Carlos Santillana. Remarkably, Ronaldo has attained that milestone in just 169 appearances, while Santillana took 461 games in a 17-year career between 1971 and 1988 to reach it. The Portuguese needs another 31 to eclipse the late great Alfredo Di Stefano and 12 more to pass Raul Gonzalez and become Real Madrid’s all-time top marksman in La Liga.
With such lofty milestones clearly attainable, rumours that Ronaldo wants to leave the Bernabeu are surely just that. He is a man who thrives on being in the limelight and if he manages to outscore both Di Stefano and Raul, as he surely will before too long, his place in history will be assured. The value of that ought to outweigh any amount of material gain – time will tell if it does.
