Assuming you didn’t spend Tuesday night tucked beneath a rock, you’ll know that Cristiano Ronaldo maintained his underwhelming season by scoring his 24th and 25th goals in his last 13 outings for club and country.
While the first was positively hum-drum, Ronaldo’s second goal of the evening in Real Madrid’s 3-0 Champions League quarter-final victory over Juventus was what’s commonly referred to in the business as a “stonker” – a gravity-defying overhead kick from 12 yards that was so audacious it even earned him an ovation from the home fans.
Indeed, the finish was enough to rock Zinedine Zidane down to the very marrow…
Zinedine Zidane’s reaction to Cristiano Ronaldo’s overhead kick is all of us. pic.twitter.com/AxNxIWrwp3
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) April 3, 2018
Utterances of awe were the order of the day, with some of the biggest names of yesteryear offering various stunned noises on social media…
Ahhhh Noooo !!!!!!! solo aplausos 👏👏👏
— Gabriel Batistuta (@GBatistutaOK) April 3, 2018
Irreale @Cristiano @ChampionsLeague
— Franco Baresi (@FBaresi) April 3, 2018
Even Peter Crouch, the undisputed master of the Champions League scissor kick, offered fealty to his Portuguese equal…
There is only a few of us who can do that
— Peter Crouch (@petercrouch) April 3, 2018
However, ESPN Sportscenter did manage to find the one person who wasn’t taken aback by Ronaldo’s exploits, what with them having Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the studio to help cover the game.
Asked for his thoughts on Ronaldo’s acrobatics, the Swede stayed true to character (and it is a character) by exclaiming:
It was a nice goal, but he should try it from 40 metres.
There’s always one, isn’t there – and it’s usually Zlatan, more often than not.