Gayle picks Ronaldo’s Real Madrid to bag 12th Champions League crown
New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) West Indian hard-hitting batsman Chris Gayle, who is an ardent fan of Real Madrid, has put his money behind the Spanish capital’s football giants, saying star forward Christiano Ronaldo will get them their record 12th Champions League title this time.
The Los Balancos will take on Serie A giants Juventus in the summit clash of the most coveted trophy in European club football in Cardiff on June 4.
This will be a 19th meeting between two of the continents’ historic clubs — all in the European Cup. And with eight wins for each team — there is nothing to separate the two teams.
“I love Real Madrid straight and its 100 per cent without saying. Its a great team and I am supporting it,” Gayle told IANS at the sidelines of a promotional event.
With Juventus being the European champions twice, Real Madrid have won the trophy 11 times.
In an exciting match at the Millennium Stadium, Juventus will be the favourites for this year’s title as their defence has been fantastic through out the season. The defenders will try to withstand everything “The Whites” threw at them.
Despite a Real Madrid fan, the 37-year-old cricketer also praised the Italian giants.
With the famed BBC defensive trio of Leonardo Bonucci, Andrea Barzagli and Giorgio Chiellini proving a tought nut to crack, Gayle said despite their defence, Portuguese superstar Ronaldo will strike again, like he did with a hat-trick each in the quarter-finals and semi-finals against Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid respectively.
He also said Real Madrid’s midfielder Isco will also be playing an important role in the much-awaited final.
In the knock-out stage, Juventus have only conceded only one goal so far, so it will be an uphill task for Real to breach Italian veteran goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.
“Juventus is also a good team. They have one of the best defence. So It’s gonna be a good match and I am looking forward to it as well,” the left-handed batsman said.
“CR7 (Ronaldo) will definitely click in the final and so will Isco. It would be nice if he will finish like that (hat-trick) in the final,” he added.
(Gaurav Sharma can be contacted at gaurav.sharma@ians.in)