Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his recent Ballon d’Or victory by scoring a goal that made things easy for Los Blancos in their visit to Osasuna.
The Portuguese scored in the 20th minute to leave the hosts without any hopes of moving into the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey, after the visitors had earned a 2-0 win in the first leg.
Carlo Ancelotti line-up almost all the regular starters, knowing that Pamplona is usually a tricky trip for Los Merengues –in fact they dropped two points there less than a month ago.
However, Osasuna had a brilliant start, pushing hard to score an early goal that would give them a chance of making it into the next round.
Real Madrid were slow in the first 20 minutes, but they got lucky in a free kick by the Ballon d’Or winner. Ronaldo stroke a powerful effort straight at the goalkeeper, but Andres Fernandez allowed the ball to move through his fingertips and between his legs.
The Portuguese gained confidence from that moment, and he became a horror for Osasuna’s defence. However, Alvaro Cejudo had the best chance of the first half, as he turned two defenders and curled one straight to the foot of the post.
The Rojillos needed to score four goals at that moment to qualify for the quarter-finals. If they still had any hopes, Jese and Di Maria destroyed them at the beginning of the second half. The Argentinian netted his effort after a brilliant play by the youngster, who showed his great state of shape.
The tie was completely over, and although both sides had chances to score, no goals were added to the scoreboard.
Yet, the game still left bad news for Carlo Ancelotti, as Fabio Coentrao got sent off in the 85th minute after being shown a second yellow card. Moreover, Alvaro Morata left the field injured with a bruise in his eye, after the ball violently hit him.
