Real Madrid 3 - 2 Borussia Dortmund: Ronaldo makes history as Real finish with a win

Posted Thursday, December 07, 2017 by PA

Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score in every Champions League group stage match as Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund 3-2 at the Bernabeu.

The holders, who finish as runners-up in Group H behind Tottenham, were set on their way by Borja Mayoral's first goal in the competition, set up by Ronaldo, who quickly added a second himself for his ninth in the Champions League this season.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang struck either side of half-time to unexpectedly level things up but Vazquez's late goal inflicted another defeat on Dortmund, who hung on to third place in the group to qualify for the Europa League.

Roman Burki spilled an early effort from Ronaldo as Madrid started brightly and they took the lead after just eight minutes.

Ronaldo waltzed between two Dortmund defenders on the left and poked the ball across the face of goal where Isco helped it into the path of Mayoral, selected as one of five changes made by Zinedine Zidane, who clipped his finish over the advancing goalkeeper.

Ronaldo curled a lovely right-foot shot into the far top corner from the left-hand side of the penalty area to extend the lead after 12 minutes.

He and Mayoral both had chances to put the match beyond Dortmund but a combination of wayward finishing and good positioning from Burki saw the score remain at 2-0.

Aubameyang had been anonymous before launching himself at Marcel Schmelzer's cross to pull a goal back with a diving header a minute before the break.

Four minutes into the second half, Aubameyang then levelled up the match. Shinji Kagawa's pass found the Gabon international unmarked on the edge of the penalty area and, after his initial effort was saved by Keylor Navas, Aubameyang deftly chipped the rebound over the Madrid goalkeeper.

Ronaldo immediately had a chance to restore Real's lead but scuffed his shot wide from in front of goal. He then had an effort ruled out for offside.

However, Zidane's team did get a third goal with nine minutes remaining when Vazquez found the bottom corner of the net with a curling effort from the edge of the box.

Kagawa could have earned Dortmund a point but, after good link-up play with Mahmoud Dahoud, he was unable to control his shot and the ball cleared the crossbar.