He couldn’t have known how definitive it was at the time, but when Gerard Piqué last went nose to nose with his friend and former team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, it took the genial, talented Catalan just over two minutes to effectively win the Champions League final, shatter Ronaldo’s dream and set in train the events which took CR9 not only to Real Madrid, but to the Camp Nou stadium tonight for Spain’s Clàsico.
Go back to Rome in May. Manchester United win a free-kick, Ronaldo cracks it in from an infeasible 35 metres. Victor Valdès can only block it and Ji-Sung Park is about to poke home the rebound when a man mountain arrives at TGV speed to make a remarkable goal-line block.
