Ronaldo Continues To Dominate One Europa League Metric.
Cristiano Ronaldo may have left Manchester United and the rest of Europe in November, but he still holds the Europa League record for one specific metric.
Ronaldo played a significant role for United throughout the competition’s group stage while still under contract there.
The 38-year-old played 90 minutes in five of the six games while starting all six games. He contributed two goals and two assists as United lost out to Real Sociedad on goal differential and fell just short of taking the top place.
Due to this, Erik ten Hag’s team had to compete in a two-leg play-off against Barcelona last month in order to advance to the round of 16. At that point, Ronaldo had already left the team and was not involved.
Despite the fact that the season has already included 19 games, he has eight goals in six league matches for his new team, Al Nassr, and he is just five goals behind Anderson Talisca, the Saudi Premier League’s top scorer.
United defeated Barcelona on a combined score in Ronaldo’s absence, and will now face another Spanish team Real Betis in the round of 16.
Yet the Portuguese great continues to lead one statistic going into the following round of games.
Despite Man Utd’s departure, Ronaldo tops the Europa League statistics.
As announced by the official Manchester United website, Ronaldo had 30 shots on goal during the group stage of the Europa League, which remains more than any other player in the league.
Nonetheless, Marcus Rashford shares the top scoring honor with Vitinha of Braga, Wissam Ben Yedder of Monaco, and Santiago Gimenez of Feyenoord thanks to his four goals. Just Rashford and Gimenez are still in the running out of the four.
Casemiro, a midfielder, tops the list of players who have successfully blocked shots (19), while Lisandro Martinez, a defender, has made more passes into the final third (54) than any other player this season.
A 7-0 result in the Red Devils’ Sunday loss at Liverpool, according to former United striker Louis Saha, might have been avoided if Ronaldo had still been with the team.
He said the following to Compare.bet: “Ten Hag has been able to instill a winning mindset at the club thanks to Ronaldo’s departure, which signified a new beginning for United.
“I believe the team would be doing much better if they had Ronaldo up top now that the club’s attitude has changed.
Of course, it’s difficult to say for sure, but as I watch United lose to Liverpool 7-0, I can’t help but wonder whether Ronaldo might have made a difference.
