Cristiano Ronaldo: Did Real Madrid legend really score a 'volley' penalty? | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo is so good at penalties that he can volley them.

If you think we’re cracking a joke along the lines of Eden Hazard could nutmeg a snake or 71% of the world is water and the rest is covered by N’Golo Kante, then you’d be wrong, because we’re deadly serious.

By nature of the ball having to be placed on the ground for a spot-kick, you’d think that it was inherently impossible for a player to volley a penalty without breaking the rules.

You would, after all, have to take two touches and suffer the humiliation of the referee pulling you up for it or, in what would be truly bonkers scenes, flick the ball up for a teammate to smash home.

As entertaining as that would be, however, Ronaldo has attempted neither feat and actually managed to volley a penalty whilst still staying firmly within the laws of the game.

Allow us to explain.

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Where was Cristiano Ronaldo born?

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Did Ronaldo really score a ‘volley’ penalty?

It’s the 2017/18 season and Ronaldo is on his way to winning a fourth Champions League title in just five years, locking horns with Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of the round of 16.

In what had been a tense first 45 minutes at the Bernabeu where an Adrien Rabiot strike had put the Parisians 1-0 up, Los Blancos were presented with an opportunity to level things up before the break when Giovani Lo Celso conceded a penalty in stoppage time.

Up stepped Ronaldo, who took absolutely no prisoners by rattling home a thunderous strike that didn’t need pin-point accuracy to simply cannon past Alphonse Areola.

However, remarkably, replays of the spot-kick showed that as Ronaldo’s standing foot landed on the turf that the ball duly sat up for him to volley – if you’ll allow us to be slightly liberal with the word – a shot towards goal with his trusty right boot.

It was the closest anyone could ever dream of coming to taking a penalty like a volley and it quickly became a subject of fascinating for football fans around the world.

Video: Ronaldo smashes home a ‘volley’ penalty for Real Madrid

Did Ronaldo actually mean it?

But perhaps even more staggering than the penalty itself is the fact that there’s reason to believe it was a deliberate piece of technique by Ronaldo in order to get more power on the ball.

That’s because Rio Ferdinand, a former teammate of Ronaldo at Manchester United, sensationally revealed as part of BT Sport’s coverage of the game that he’d seen him pull it off before.

According to ESPN, Ferdinand said much to the shock of presenter Gary Lineker: “He used to do that in training, you know.

“He used to mess about in training and do it but to do it in a game. I’m not saying he means it but he used to do it, I swear to you. Crazy, but he used to do it.”

Say what you like about Ronaldo and there’s definitely a lot to say, but you know you’re an absolute god of football when you’re deliberately volleying penalties. Simply outrageous.

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