Jerome Boateng believes it will take a team effort to stop Cristiano Ronaldo in Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final showdown with Real Madrid.
The two giants of European football will meet for a record 25th time in European Cup history on Wednesday evening.
All eyes in Munich will be on the five-time Ballon d’Or recipient, whom Boateng describes as a “machine”. However the German has stressed that in order to keep him quiet it will take a united approach from the Bavarian club.
“We can only stop Cristiano Ronaldo as a team,” he told German magazine Kicker, via Sky Sports.
“There is a no more complete striker than Ronaldo. Left foot, right foot, header – he is in perfect control of everything he does,” he added.
“I went through only once against him with Bayern, but twice we have gone out. He also has the best team-mates at Real. Shutting him out is only 50 per cent of it, the other players are simply too good for that at this level.”
A Champions League legend
No player since UEFA renamed the European Cup into the Champions League in 1992 has scored more goals than Ronaldo.
To date he’s bagged 120 goals across 150 matches for Manchester United and Real Madrid with Lionel Messi (100) his nearest challenger.
Across those five showpiece events the Portuguese forward scored in 2008 as the Red Devils would ultimately overcome Chelsea on penalties, despite him infamously missing his spot-kick, as well as in Madrid’s tenth (2014) and 12th (2017) triumph.
Ronaldo will be hoping to add to his tally when his side take on Bayern Munich in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday.
