“Instinct took over” – Ramsey explains why he “stole” Ronaldo’s record-breaking goal

Aaron Ramsey has blamed ‘instinct’ for tapping in Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick in Juventus’ 2-1 win over Lokomotiv Moscow. 

Ronaldo thought he had opened the scoring against Lokomotiv on Wednesday night when his free-kick squirmed through the legs of goalkeeper Guilherme.

Had the free-kick gone in, Ronaldo would have broken the record for scoring against the most teams in the Champions League. Ramsey, however, had different ideas.

Why did Ramsey ‘steal’ Ronaldo’s goal? Five things to know…

• Juventus beat Lokomotiv Moscow 2-1 on Wednesday to secure qualification to the Champions League knockout stages.
• Aaron Ramsey gave Juventus the lead after just three minutes capitalising on a goalkeeping error.
• Lokomotiv stop-stopper Guilherme allowed Cristiano Ronaldo’s free-kick to go through his legs with Ramsey helping the ball over the line.
• The Welshman had been accused of stealing what would have been a record-breaking goal for Ronaldo.
• But Ramsey admitted instinct took over, with fears the shot would be cleared, apologising to Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is currently tied with Real Madrid legend Raul and old adversary Lionel Messi having scored against 33 different opponents in the Champions League. Lokomotiv Moscow are yet to bear the brunt of Ronaldo, but he came closer than he ever will without scoring during the week.

His free-kick was straight at Guilherme, but the ‘keeper dropped the ball and allowed it to run through his legs. It was destined for the back of the net, before Ramsey nipped in to score his second Juventus goal and ‘steal’ it from Ronaldo.

But Ramsey has since revealed he apologised to Ronaldo following the incident, insisting he only did it as he thought there was a chance of the shot being cleared.

He said: “I thought the keeper was a lot closer to me and had a chance of diving back and maybe clearing it.

“My instinct took over to make sure that it went over the line. I’ve apologised to Cristiano.

“We still have work to do to finish top but we achieved our target of qualifying tonight, so we’re happy that we’ve done that.”

Subscribe to Squawka’s Youtube channel here.

Can Ronaldo guide Juventus to Champions League glory?

Juventus may have won eight Scudetti on the bounce and dominated Italian football for nearly a decade, but their fortunes in Europe have been somewhat different.

The Bianconeri have not won the Champions League since 1996 when they beat Ajax on penalties – the club who knocked them out of the competition last season.

Ronaldo was brought in to help the Old Lady to triumph in Europe once more. They are already through to the last-16 despite some unconvincing displays and will hope they can pip Atletico Madrid to the top Group D.

Should Juventus go all the way, Ronaldo would become just the second player to win the Champions League with three different clubs having already tasted glory with Manchester United and Real Madrid.

Clarence Seedorf is currently the only player to have won the Champions League with three different clubs, doing so for Ajax, Real Madrid and AC Milan.