Who are Cristiano Ronaldo's favourite opponents?
Friday 7 August 2020
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Which teams and nations bring the best out of the all-time top scorer in UEFA's club competitions?
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Cristiano Ronaldo seems to enjoy scoring against any side, but do some teams have more to fear from him than others?
• With 133 goals in 15,133 minutes of UEFA club competition football, Cristiano Ronaldo scores at an average rate of a goal every 113 minutes and 47 seconds.
• Ronaldo has played against 54 teams in UEFA club competition, scoring against 35. As a Madrid player, he faced 32 sides in Europe, with only four stopping him from finding the net: Barcelona, Dinamo Zagreb, Legia Warszawa and Napoli.
• Ronaldo has scored more UEFA club competition goals (ten) against Juventus, the club he joined in summer 2018, than any other side.
• Barcelona have proved the toughest European nut to crack for Ronaldo: he has yet to score in 450 minutes against them in UEFA competition – 270 with United and 180 with the Merengues.
• The opponents he has found it easiest to score against are Malmö, with his six goals across 180 UEFA Champions League minutes against the Swedish club constituting a strike every 30 minutes.
• The team Ronaldo has encountered most in Europe are Lyon, whom he has met 12 times – 1,064 minutes in total – scoring six goals.
Who has Ronaldo scored against in UEFA competitions?
| Opponents | Games | Minutes | Goals | Minutes per goal |
| Aalborg | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| AC Milan | 6 | 513 | 2 | 256m30s |
| Ajax | 7 | 630 | 9 | 70m |
| APOEL | 4 | 360 | 6 | 60m |
| Arsenal | 2 | 180 | 2 | 90m |
| Atlético | 10 | 960 | 7 | 137m9s |
| Auxerre | 2 | 162 | 1 | 162m |
| Barcelona | 5 | 450 | - | - |
| Basel | 2 | 180 | 2 | 90m |
| Bayern | 8 | 763 | 9 | 84m47s |
| Benfica | 4 | 337 | - | - |
| Celtic | 3 | 262 | - | - |
| Chelsea | 1 | 120 | 1 | 120m |
| Copenhagen | 4 | 360 | 3 | 120m |
| CSKA Moskva | 2 | 180 | 3 | 60m |
| Debrecen | 2 | 157 | 1 | 157m |
| Dinamo Bucureşti | 1 | 64 | - | - |
| Dinamo Zagreb | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Dortmund | 9 | 800 | 7 | 114m17s |
| Dynamo Kyiv | 2 | 180 | 3 | 60m |
| Fenerbahçe | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Galatasaray | 3 | 270 | 6 | 45m |
| Inter Milan | 3 | 212 | 1 | 212m |
| Juventus | 7 | 630 | 10 | 63m |
| Legia | 2 | 180 | - | - |
| Leverkusen | 2 | 180 | 2 | 90m |
| Liverpool | 3 | 255 | 1 | 255m |
| Lokomotiv Moskva | 2 | 171 | - | - |
| LOSC Lille | 4 | 320 | - | - |
| Ludogorets | 2 | 180 | 2 | 90m |
| Lyon | 12 | 1064 | 6 | 173m20s |
| Malmö | 2 | 180 | 6 | 30m |
| Man. City | 3 | 270 | 1 | 270m |
| Man. United | 5 | 367 | 3 | 122m20s |
| Marseille | 2 | 160 | 4 | 40m |
| Napoli | 2 | 180 | - | - |
| Panathinaikos | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Paris | 4 | 360 | 3 | 120m |
| Partizan | 2 | 118 | - | - |
| Porto | 4 | 201 | 1 | 201m |
| Rangers | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Roma | 6 | 539 | 5 | 107m48s |
| Schalke | 4 | 360 | 7 | 51m26s |
| Sevilla | 1 | 90 | 2 | 45m |
| Shakhtar | 2 | 180 | 5 | 36m |
| Sparta Praha | 2 | 79 | - | - |
| Sporting CP | 4 | 357 | 3 | 119m |
| Stuttgart | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Tottenham | 4 | 335 | 4 | 83m45s |
| Valencia | 2 | 119 | - | - |
| Villarreal | 4 | 288 | - | - |
| Wolfsburg | 2 | 180 | 3 | 60m |
| Young Boys | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Zürich | 2 | 110 | 2 | 55m |
| TOTAL | 179 | 15223 | 133 | 115m31s |
• Of Europe's big five footballing nations, Ronaldo has found German club defences most porous, averaging over a goal a game – 28 strikes in 26 matches.
• He may be well advised to avoid a move to Scotland in the future: Ronaldo is yet to score in 352 minutes of UEFA club action against Scottish sides, by far the longest period that clubs from any country have been able to resist him.
Which nations' clubs has Ronaldo scored against?
| Opponents by nationality | Games | Minutes | Goals | Minutes per goal |
| Bulgaria | 2 | 180 | 2 | 90m |
| Croatia | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Cyprus | 4 | 360 | 6 | 60m |
| Czech Republic | 2 | 79 | - | - |
| Denmark | 5 | 450 | 3 | 150m |
| England | 18 | 1527 | 12 | 127m15s |
| France | 24 | 2066 | 14 | 147m34s |
| Germany | 26 | 2373 | 28 | 84m45s |
| Greece | 1 | 90 | - | - |
| Hungary | 2 | 157 | 1 | 157m |
| Italy | 24 | 2074 | 18 | 115m13s |
| Netherlands | 7 | 630 | 9 | 70m |
| Poland | 2 | 180 | - | - |
| Portugal | 12 | 895 | 4 | 223m45s |
| Romania | 1 | 64 | - | - |
| Russia | 4 | 351 | 3 | 117m |
| Scotland | 4 | 352 | - | - |
| Serbia | 2 | 118 | - | - |
| Spain | 22 | 1905 | 9 | 211m40s |
| Sweden | 2 | 180 | 6 | 30m |
| Switzerland | 5 | 380 | 4 | 95m |
| Turkey | 4 | 360 | 6 | 60m |
| Ukraine | 4 | 360 | 8 | 45m |
| TOTAL | 177 | 15133 | 133 | 114m28s |
When Ronaldo has scored his UEFA club competition goals
• The statistics strongly suggest that Ronaldo is at his goalscoring best in the opening phases of each half; he is relatively quiet in the latter phase of the first half.
• Ronaldo has scored 17 penalties in UEFA club competition but failed to find the target with three; two saved (vs Copenhagen, December 2013, and vs Ludogorets, October 2014) and one where he missed the target (vs Barcelona, April 2008).
| Time | Goals (penalties) |
| 0-10 | 10 (1) |
| 11-20 | 12 (1) |
| 21-30 | 20 (3) |
| 31-40 | 6 |
| 41-half-time | 10 (3) |
| FIRST HALF | 58 |
| 46-55 | 19 (2) |
| 56-65 | 16 (1) |
| 66-75 | 10 (2) |
| 76-85 | 11 (1) |
| 86-full-time | 16 (2) |
| SECOND HALF | 72 |
| Extra time | 3 (1) |
| TOTAL | 133 |
Last updated: 07/08/20
