Real Madrid has booked their place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League for a 20th consecutive season courtesy of a 2-1 win over 10-man Sporting Lisbon at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
Sporting needed a win to remain in with a chance of reaching the last 16, but Karim Benzema’s late header condemned them to defeat after Adrien Silva had earlier cancelled out Raphael Varane’s opener.
Ronaldo would go on to have a quiet return to his first professional club, leaving him still two goals short of becoming the first player to reach 100 in European competition.
Marcelo dragged a tame right-footed effort wide of the target at the other end before Sporting came close once more, this time Bruno Cesar curling a free kick narrowly wide from a difficult angle.
Sporting’s failure to make the most of good positions continued into the second half, with Gelson Martins missing the chance to pick out a teammate in the middle twice in the space of five minutes.
The hosts’ hopes of getting the two goals they needed to stay in the competition looked even bleaker shortly after the hour mark when they were reduced to 10 men, with Joao Pereira being shown a straight red card following an off-the-ball altercation with Mateo Kovacic.
However, Sporting gave themselves a lifeline with just 10 minutes remaining when Adrien Silva fired home from the spot after Fabio Coentrao was penalised for a handball having seen Joel Campbell’s flick strike his arm while he was still appealing for a separate handball incident against the Arsenal loanee.
Madrid finally put the game to bed with three minutes remaining of normal time, however, as Karim Benzema latched on to a cross from Ramos and glanced his header past Rui Patricio into the bottom corner.
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