Cristiano Ronaldo has been called a magician by many a wide-eyed commentator over the years, but we didn’t think he was capable of this.
Yesterday, during Real Madrid’s Champion’s League clash against PSG, the Portuguese legend managed to levitate a penalty and smash it into the net on the volley.
Not that you would have noticed in real-time. Check out the spot-kick below, which helped Madrid run out 3-1 winners.
It looks like a good penalty, nothing more, nothing less – until you slow it all down, and actually see Ronaldo’s dastardly plan in action.
The forward plants his foot with such force beside the ball that he forces it to pop up in mid-air, essentially meaning he scored the goal on the volley.
After the game, former teammate and pundit Rio Ferdinand said that Ronaldo used to practise the technique in his Manchester United training days.
'He used to do that in training you know! […]It takes a good player to do that! Tee it up for himself and volley it. No, there’s no way you can see that. It’s an excellent penalty.
"Areola went the right way and he’s not far away from it. The pace and the accuracy, very difficult to save that”
