How Ronaldo etched his name in Real Madrid lore against Wolfsburg

Maybe now they can let Juanito rest.

For three decades, the striker’s name has been invoked almost every time Real Madrid makes a poor start to a two-legged tie. No individual is more closely linked with the notion of la remontada - the comeback - at the Spanish club.

"Ninety minutes are a very long time at the Bernabeu," he warned Inter after a 3-1 first leg defeat in the UEFA Cup semi-final in 1986. The Italians hardly needed to be told, having already lost to Los Blancos in the same competition after a 2-0 home win one year previously. Even so, Juanito’s words went down in club folklore after Madrid roared back to a 6-4 aggregate win.

A similar effort was required on Tuesday, as the Spaniards attempted to recover from a 2-0 first leg deficit in their Champions League quarter-final against Wolfsburg. The pre-match choreography prepared by fans at the Bernabeu showed three darts sticking out from the big-eared trophy: one for every goal Madrid needed to score.

On paper - or, indeed, on a gigantic banner - that might have looked like a daunting target. But if any team was equipped for the task, it was this one. Madrid had scored three or more goals on 15 separate occasions at the Bernabeu this season. Since Zinedine Zidane took over as manager in January, the club had found the net 37 times in nine home matches.

Wolfsburg, furthermore, was nothing special. Eighth in the Bundesliga, the Wolves had previous for catastrophic collapses. Dieter Hecking’s team was 1-0 up at half-time away to Bayern Munich in September, before Robert Lewandowski scored five times in 10 second-half minutes.

At a certain point on Tuesday, it looked as though Cristiano Ronaldo might emulate that feat. There were 15 minutes on the clock when the Portuguese converted Dani Carvajal’s deflected cross from close range. There were 16 minutes on the clock when he headed in his second, from a Luka Modric corner.

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Just 86 seconds separated the two goals, and yet Ronaldo had very nearly seized another chance in-between. Vieirinha did just enough to divert another Carvajal cross away from Ronaldo at the back-post, though in practice he earned Wolfsburg nothing more than a stay of execution by heading the ball behind.

The match had barely begun, but the remontada was already two-thirds complete. If 90 minutes at the Bernabeu were indeed a long time, then even the remaining 74 must have looked ominous to Wolfsburg’s defenders.

And yet, they did not crumble. Instead, the visitors composed themselves and began to come into the game. Even the loss of Julian Draxler to injury shortly after the half-hour mark could not prevent the German side from carving out a foothold.

Madrid was still enjoying the lion’s share of possession, but the best chance of the remaining part of the first-half fell to Wolfsburg’s Bruno Henrique, who stalled rather than shoot with his left foot after finding himself in yards of space inside the Madrid area. By the time he eventually took aim with his right, Sergio Ramos had recovered sufficiently to block.

One goal for the visitors would have changed everything - requiring Madrid to score twice more in order to get its nose back in front. The prospect can only have nagged louder at the back of the home fans’ minds as the game continued to progress.

Because the truth is that they have not witnessed a remontada here in some time. Madrid had failed to progress on any of the last eight occasions after suffering a first-leg defeat in Europe. The club had not overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit in continental competition since 1987.

Last year, the Madrid-based newspaper AS filmed a journalist using a Ouija board in a bid to contact Juanito - who passed away in 1992 - to help Madrid come back in a domestic cup game against their neighbours Atletico. Little wonder that the striker’s son, Roberto, should post on Twitter last week asking everyone to "leave my father in peace."

Instead it was left to Ronaldo to deliver his own message of confidence ahead of this second leg, telling the club’s website that: "Tuesday will be a perfect night, it will be magical… we’re going to get through the tie."

With his help, they did.

Wolfsburg continued to fight doggedly into the second-half at the Bernabeu - surviving one major scare when a Sergio Ramos header hit the post and ran across the goalline into Diego Benaglio’s hands. Madrid continued to dominate, but the threat of a sucker-punch remained as extra-time loomed.

Ronaldo finally ended that resistance with a beautiful free-kick with just under a quarter of an hour remaining.

It was already his 16th goal of this Champions League campaign, and his 11th scored at home. Why would anyone in Madrid go on disturbing the dead, when such brilliance exists among the living?