Cristiano Ronaldo will go without a trophy for the first time in 12 years after Manchester United were dumped out of the Champions League on Tuesday.
The Red Devils were defeated 1-0 by Atletico Madrid at Old Trafford and the result means that their No.7 will be trophy-less come the end of the season for the first time since his debut campaign at Real Madrid, 2009-10. Ronaldo's side were schooled by the Spanish champions over two legs and lost 2-1 on aggregate to see them fall at the first hurdle in the knockout stages.
Renan Lodi's 42nd-minute header gave Diego Simeone and co sage passage to the quarter-finals, while managing to restrict the five-time Ballon d'Or to a grand total of zero shots. Only against Panathinaikos in 2003 and Barcelona in 2011 had Ronaldo previously played the full 90 minutes of a Champions League match and failed to have an effort on goal.
The 37-year-old will now only be able to add to his tally of 18 strikes in all competitions this season during United's final nine Premier League games, as they bid to qualify for Europe's elite competition next term by finishing in fourth place. The predicament comes after Ronaldo was unable to produce any magic in the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, as the Red Devils suffered early-round exits.
In the third round of the former back in September, United's talisman was left out of the squad when West Ham came to town and claimed a shock win, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer 's decision backfired. And after reaching the fourth round of the FA Cup, Ronaldo's penalty miss against Middlesbrough would prove fatal as the Championship side later triumphed in a dramatic shootout.
It mirror's his first term in Madrid, where the Portuguese memorably donned the No.9 shirt for Real. Manuel Pellegrini 's men were surprisingly knocked out of Champions League by Lyon and their Copa del Rey hopes were famously ended by minnows Alcoron at the round-of-32.
Los Blancos could then only manage a second-place finish in La Liga, Pep Guardiola 's Barcelona claimed the title, despite Ronaldo and Gonzalo Higuain netting 27 leagues goals each. The Red Devils' Premier League campaign has been much less spectacular though, with United sitting fifth and trailing leaders bitter rivals Manchester City, coincidentally managed by Guardiola, by a humiliating 20 points with two months left.
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Interim manager Ralf Rangnick is now tasked with getting his team up for a crucial run-in, with the aim of finishing fourth out of their hands thanks to Arsenal 's resurgence. Speaking after the loss to Atletico, the Red Devils boss told a press cofenrece: "[Targeting a top-four finish] would have been the case, even if we'd have won the game tonight. We also have to be realistic.
"To achieve that, we have to win six, if not seven, of the games and win away at Arsenal. It's not an easy thing to achieve, at the end, but we will try hard and our very best to finish fourth at the end of the season. Whatever happens, our job now, together with the fantastic supporters, the fans were fantastic today, is to finish this season on the best and highest possible note."
With United now going 18 days without a match, Rangnick added: "Well, I would say, on one hand, I think it's not so bad that the players are on international duty. Maybe it can help them to overcome the frustration they feel right now.
"And then we'll see each other in one-and-a-half weeks with those players not on international duty in for a normal week and hopefully training, most of them, in preparation for the Leicester game."
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