La Liga: Ronaldo booed after Barcelona loss

Posted Monday, April 12, 2010 by theguardian.com

'Lionel Messi makes fool of Cristiano Ronaldo' – Spain press verdict

La Liga: Ronaldo booed after Barcelona loss
Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo, left, was eclipsed by Lionel Messi of Barcelona, right, at the Bernabéu.

Lionel Messi's upstaging of Cristiano Ronaldo was the central talking point in the Spanish media after Barcelona's 2-0 win over Real Madrid at the Bernabéu last night.

"Leo makes a fool of Cristiano in the clash of the stars" was the headline in the Catalan daily Sport after the Argentinian had followed up his four-goal demolition of Arsenal in midweek with the crucial opening goal for Barça against their biggest rivals.

By contrast Real's Ronaldo, Messi's predecessor as world player of the year, could only manage a couple of shots and a small array of stepovers and flicks.

Angry Madrid supporters also whistled the Portuguese late in the match, suggesting they have yet to be convinced he is worth the record €94m (£82m) Real paid Manchester United for him last summer. "Too much Messi for CR9," was the headline in today's Madrid-based Marca sports daily.

Barça's 2-0 victory put the champions three points clear at the top of La Liga with seven games to go.

"All the fans have the same feeling right now: the sceptre for the best player in the world is Messi's – and it could be for a long time to come," the Marca columnist Roberto Palomar wrote, reflecting on the fact that Real could now finish the season without a trophy.

The 22-year-old Messi is La Liga's top scorer with 27 goals to Ronaldo's 18.

Sport trumpeted Messi's superiority. "Lionel Messi showed yesterday in the Bernabéu that the second-best player in the world is light years from his level," the paper said. "As Leo was attempting to add to his goal tally, Cristiano was lost on the pitch, making pointless runs and expressing his rage with angry, excessive gestures.

"Ronaldo had to resign himself to the fact that his reign in the football world has ended and that's that."

However, writing in As today, JJ Santos noted that Ronaldo's runs on Saturday had been generally ineffective and had left the 25-year-old exhausted.

"Cristiano turned into a roadrunner chasing shadows," Santos said. "By the time he found space and had the ball he was already exhausted and had to watch in despair as a genius like Messi destroyed Pellegrini's defensive network.

"And even harder to take than the defeat must have been the fact that the fans whistled him for the first time."

Palomar noted in Marca: "He ran, he used up all his fuel, but he was isolated and erratic. He tried from all directions but scarcely had chances to test Valdes, at whom he fired off only a couple of shots that didn't even warm the goalkeeper's hands."