Cristiano Ronaldo Scores on Pair of Headers, Crushing Schalke's Spirit in the Process

Real Madrid is in the midst of a rough patch, which saw the club slide down to second place in the La Liga table behind eternal rival Barcelona. The word “crisis” is being used extensively at this development. Carlo Ancelotti, the club’s manager, is taking the heat for the club’s post-Club World Cup slump. Realistically the Real Madrid skid is the result of injuries and fatigue, but that sort of rational thinking doesn’t always sell in European soccer.

Things got hotter in the Spanish capital Tuesday afternoon when Real Madrid decided to sleepwalk through the first half of their Champions League return leg vs. Schalke. Real Madrid entered the second leg up 2-0 but gave up an early goal to make things interesting. However Ronaldo added a header four minutes to quiet the “crisis” talk. Of course the stability was short-lived when Klaas Jan Huntelaar scored to pull Schalke within one — meaning at the time if the German club scored again it would advance thanks to the away goals rule.

No matter, right before halftime Ronaldo drifted into the box and converted a Fábio Coentrão cross to put Madrid back in the drivers seat with a 4-2 aggregate advantage.

Spoiler alert: Ronaldo is very good at soccer, even headers.

Make it 75 Champions League goals for Cristiano Ronaldo, tying Lionel Messi's UCL record (for now).
— Paul Carr (@PaulCarr) March 10, 2015

[Photo via Getty]