Ronaldo stars as Real Madrid beats Shakhtar 4-3
Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo reacts next to Gareth Bale, right, as Barcelona’s Luis Suarez celebrates with teammates after scoring his side’s fourth goal during the first clasico of the season between Real Madrid and Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, Spain, Saturday, Nov. 21, 2015. AP
LVIV, Ukraine — Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals and set up two more as Real Madrid weathered a late Shakhtar Donetsk revival to win 4-3 in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Already qualified for the knockout stages, Madrid’s win ensures it will finish top of Group A, while defeat ends Shakhtar’s slim qualifying hopes.
While victory is welcome for Madrid after a 4-0 humbling by arch-rival Barcelona in Saturday’s “clasico,” there will be concerns over how it allowed Shakhtar to get so close to snatching a draw.
Ronaldo opened the scoring with an 18th-minute header into the empty net after some smart play from Gareth Bale, who evaded Yaroslav Rakitskiy and flicked the ball over goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov to give the Portugal forward an easy finish.
Early in the second half, Ronaldo provided the assists for goals for Luka Modric and then Dani Carvajal in the space of three second-half minutes. Carvajal’s strike was an elegant curling left-footed shot over Pyatov and into the top-left corner of the net.
Ronaldo made it 4-0 in the 70th minute, finishing off on the rebound when his first shot was blocked.
Shakhtar’s comeback began seven minutes later after Casemiro fouled Taison in the box. Alex Teixeira, the Ukrainian league’s top scorer with 19 goals from just 13 games, stepped up and converted the spot-kick even though Madrid keeper Kiko Casilla dived the right way.
Shakhtar cut the deficit to 4-2 when Dentinho pounced at the far post to head in a corner from Bernard that was nodded on by Taras Stepanenko.
Teixeira struck again in the 88th minute with a calm finish but Real held on for the win.
In Wednesday’s other game in Group A, Paris Saint-Germain routed Malmo 5-0 to secure qualification.
The contest for a Europa League place, by finishing third, will be between Shakhtar – which is away to PSG in their final game – and Malmo, which plays Madrid in Spain.
Shakhtar and Malmo both have three points.
