Football: Ronaldo ends goal 'crisis'

Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, right, scores past Espanyol goalkeeper Pau Lopez during their 6-0 rout. Photo / AP

Goalscoring great silences his many doubters with five strikes against rivals Espanyol.

How Fernando Torres must have chuckled to himself over the past couple of weeks, listening to all the stern analyses in Spain about how great goalscorers cope with barren spells, overcome famines and droughts, and hearing experts opine on the doubts, real or imagined, that afflict strikers when they enter their 30s.

It was not Torres, 31, who scored his first goal of the season for Atletico Madrid against Barcelona, who had been the subject of all this, but Cristiano Ronaldo, and his mysterious case of goallessness.

Ahead of the weekend, Ronaldo had registered a blank through four club and international matches. He had scored just once in nine including pre-season friendlies. It could look stark if you put it a certain way: He hit 48 Liga goals in 35 games in 2014-15; the 30-year-old had none in 2015-16.

Saturday's Marca, Spain's biggest-selling daily, bluntly referred to "Cristiano's crisis". No goals in 180 Liga minutes a crisis? Somewhere in that newspaper's archive must be the far more powerful word they used to describe Torres's no league goals in 180 days, the run endured by the former £50 million centre-forward last season, stretched across his wretched spell at AC Milan, where Chelsea offloaded him, and his first few weeks at Atletico, the club he rejoined in January.

Ronaldo's so-called "crisis" ended abruptly, when he received Luka Modric's long through-ball, heard the hurried pitter-patter of Espanyol defender Anaitz Arbilla giving chase, and gave no thought at all to those who wondered at that moment whether he really had lost his finishing skills forever. Ronaldo glanced up and eased a shot, left to right, across goalkeeper Pau Lopez. That was seven minutes after kick off.

After another six, he converted a penalty. He had his hat-trick before the match was 21 minutes old. By nine minutes from full-time, he had five. He had set up Karim Benzema's strike, too, in the 6-0 parade.

Whenever Ronaldo has days like this, milestones are passed, although soon the only ones left will be those that Lionel Messi has recently established, so far ahead are these two of other record-breakers.

Ronaldo's third goal zipped him beyond Alfredo di Stefano's 227 Liga goals. His fourth elbowed Raul into second place among Real Madrid's all-time league marksmen.

Some context: Di Stefano whizzed to his total between 1953 and 1966. Ronaldo has taken half that time, having just embarked on his seventh season in Spain. Raul spread his 228 Liga goals over 550 matches. Ronaldo has crammed his 230 goals into just 203 fixtures.

Whether he was Madrid's best player at Espanyol is open to argument. Gareth Bale's involvement in the moves leading up to five of the six goals made an alternative case. Ronaldo had plenty for which to thank him.

Leicester's fightback 'fantastic'

Leicester fought from two goals down in the last 18 minutes to beat Aston Villa 3-2 yesterday and maintain their stunning start to the English Premier League season.

Having only just avoided relegation last season, unbeaten Leicester is second after five games under former Chelsea manager Claudio Ranieri. By contrast, defending champion Chelsea is seven points behind after losing three games.

"Fantastic, fantastic spirit and good character," Ranieri said. "At 2-0, I watched my players and they believed everything was possible. You can lose, but you have to believe that anything is possible."

Nathan Dyer won it with a diving header in the 89th minute.

"I told the players I have a lot of experience but this group is fantastic. We have to play every match in this way."

Tottenham won their first match of the season with Ryan Mason's late goal clinching a 1-0 victory over Sunderland.

But after five matches, Sunderland remains winless in the league with only two points after coming close to being relegated last season.

- additional reporting AP