Cristiano Ronaldo lit Sun Life Stadium up last night, scoring two goals to help Real Madrid defeat Chelsea 3-1 and hand Los Blancos the first ever International Champions Cup.
Ronaldo’s brace denied former boss Jose Mourinho his first piece of silverware since returning back to Chelsea after a three year stint at Real Madrid. The feat also gave CR7’s new manager, Carlo Ancelotti, his first title after the former Chelsea boss arrived in the Santiago Bernabéu earlier this summer.
Madrid came out firing and within the first 15 minutes had their lead. Luka Modric slipped a simple ball past a stagnant Ramires and into Marcelo, who turned, got Gary Cahill to bite on a left footed step-over and fired a low shot to the far post that Petr Cech couldn’t handle.
Two minutes later and Ramires would get his revenge. The Brazilian slipped a tight pass into Romelu Lukaku just beyond midfield and the Belgian striker returned a delicate touch back to Ramires. With a full head of steam Ramires burst through the Madrid defense, setting up a one-on-one with Iker Casillas. In shades of his memorable Champions League goal against Barcelona in 2012, Ramires cooly stabbed the ball over Casillas’ head to level the match at one apiece.
After both sides exchanged efforts that came close, Ronaldo corralled the ball 25 yards away from goal when Ivanovic laid into him resulting in a free kick. In his vintage ‘Gunslinger’ pose, Ronaldo stood over the ball before unleashing a ferocious free-kick (see video below) that knuckled under the bar and beyond the out-stretched reach of Cech to hand Madrid the 2-1 edge.
In the second stanza Casillas did well to deny Ivanovic his glancing header in the 50th minute and six minutes later, Ronaldo had his double. New-boy Isco, who has been so good throughout this tournament, got the ball on the left side of the Chelsea box, shook Ivanovic to create a yard of space, and curled in a perfect cross that the galloping Ronaldo snapped into the back of the net.
As both sides made changes the match slinked into its final phase with Chelsea unable to produce the goal to offset the 3-1 scoreline.
