Cristiano Ronaldo hit back at critical former boss Jose Mourinho in the best way possible with two goals to help Real Madrid beat Chelsea 3-1 and win the International Champions Cup pre-season tournament.
Real Madrid Carlo Ancelotti said he was satisfied with his team’s performance on Wednesday.
“The tournament was good because I think we played a good game, important game, good atmosphere. We found good pitches, good training ground. We didn’t have a problem. So when I say that this tournament was good is because we had the possibility to play and to improve against a strong team and we proved our condition.”
Ancelotti also said he did not want to discuss a rumoured move by Gareth Bale from Tottenham to Real Madrid.
“For me to speak about Bale would not be easy because I said yesterday, I was a little bit disappointed in the manager of Bale in this moment so I would not like to speak about this,” said Ancelotti.
Marcelo put the Spanish team on the scoreboard early at Sun Life Stadium in Miami with a strike from the edge of the box in the 14th minute.
After Real Madrid’s score, Chelsea responded just two minutes later through Brazilian Ramires to level the scores at 1-1 but from then on the tournament final was the Ronaldo show.
One of his trademark free kicks in the 31st minute put Real back in front and his header from midfielder Isco’s cross 12 minutes after halftime completed the scoring.
The victory maintained new coach Carlo Ancelotti’s 100 percent record in pre-season warm up games to date.
“Cristiano has played a great game. For him it’s normal to mark well, score goals. He’s in great condition because he’s a very professional player, very serious about his job. I think the work of the coach with a player like Cristiano is easier,” he said.
Ronaldo joined Real Madrid from Manchester United for around 90 million euros ($118 million) in 2009 and took his goal scoring exploits to new heights under Mourinho.
Their relationship broke down towards the end of last season, though, and after Mourinho returned to Stamford Bridge in June the famed coach said he thought the world’s most expensive player was a bit of a know-it-all. An interview Mourinho gave last weekend was taken as a slight towards the Real forward in the Spanish media.
At a news conference after the Wednesday match, Mourinho said the media misrepresented some his comments as an attack.
“The declarations against Cristiano is your movie not my movie. It’s not my movie. I just tried to identify the person. I just told the true Ronaldo in relation to the Brazilian one. If somebody asks me Thomas Muller and Gerd Muller, for me the real one is Gerd Muller because he’s the first one,” he said after a statement he made saying the Brazilian Ronaldo was the “real” one.
Annoyed by reporters continuing to ask about his grudges against Ronaldo and the club, Mourinho cut short the news conference and walked out after scolding the last reporter for his question.
“You did already your report so why do you ask me? You have to speak less and ask the question if you want to listen to the opinion of the other person, but you did a report,” he said as he stood up and walked out of the news conference.
Former World Player of the Year Ronaldo had declined to engage in a slanging match with his fellow Portuguese off the pitch but on it had a big say in Real winning the eight-team exhibition tournament that has rotated around the United States.