Christiano Ronaldo had both an incredible miss and amazing free kick goal in Real Madrid's Copa del Rey ouster

Cristiano Ronaldo

Ronaldo and Real won’t be troubled by a treble bid anymore. (Reuters)
It was one of those days for Real Madrid.
It was one of those days for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Real Madrid needed to win at Celta Vigo on Wednesday to overcome the 2-1 loss in the first leg of the Copa del Rey quarterfinals from a week ago. That defeat had been Real’s second in a row, immediately following a 40-game unbeaten streak.
But it would prove a frustrating night, resulting in a 2-2 tie that would take Celta, in a surprising eighth place in La Liga, to the semifinals. Atletico Madrid also advanced on Wednesday with a 2-2 draw and a 5-3 aggregate win against Eibar.
And Real’s frustration was exemplified by this double miss by Ronaldo. First, goalkeeper Sergio Alvarez deflected his header from Isco’s precise cross off the bar with a remarkable save. And then Ronaldo, somehow, tapped the rebound off the post with his left, when it was probably easier to score than to hit the woodwork.

It was the seventh time this season Ronaldo has hit the post or the cross bar, apparently putting him in a tie for the lead in all of Europe.

On the brink of halftime, second-string right back Danilo, one of the bigger busts in recent Real history, put his side further in the hole with a clumsy own goal, deflecting a ball into his own net.

Ronaldo would get his team back into the tie with a stupendous free kick just after the hour mark.

It was the sort of effort Ronaldo attempts all the time but almost never scores from, either putting his shot in the stands or into the wall most of the time. When he pulls it off, though, it looks spectacular, like this time around.
Real’s pursuit of the goal that would tie things up on aggregate would be in vain, though. And Celta got another one in the 85th minute when Daniel Wass finished well with a placed shot from the edge of the box.

Lucas Vazquez would get another for Real with an athletic diving header in the final seconds of regulation, but it wouldn’t matter anymore.

Real Madrid’s campaign for a treble, or even a domestic double, is at an end. And on the strength of the two performances in this quarterfinal, and Real’s form of late, that’s not entirely undeserved.

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