Real Madrid 3-4 Schalke. Ronaldo's headers avoided a bigger upset

Real Madrid are through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, but they didn't exactly accomplish that without having a few scares at the Bernabéu. The Merengues were beaten 3-4by Schake 04 tonight, but thanks to their 1st leg victory in Germany (0-2), they were the side advancing to the next stage of the competition with a 5-4 result on aggregate.    

                    

The reigning European champions are still standing in this year's UEFA Champions League, even though this Tuesday's night 3-4 home loss against Schalke ended up exposing most of their weaknesses once again. Real Madrid were fortunate enough to be carrying a 2-0 advantage from the first leg clash coming into this game and had that not been the case, Carlo Ancelotti and his men could have very well been knocked out in a shocking fashion. The Merengues' savior was none other thanCristiano Ronaldo, who made sure that Schalke would never get ahead in the tie with two crucial headers in the first 45 minutes. Karim Benzema scored the hosts' third goal shortly after the break, but the German side managed to turn things around and basically waved goodbye to Europe by leaving the Santiago Bernabéuwith a dignifying 3-4 win.

Cristiano Ronaldo game photos in Real Madrid vs Schalke
Real Madrid 3-4 Schalke - Goals and highlights:

All Cristiano Ronaldo actions vs Schalke 04:

It all ended well in the Madrid reign tonight, but it's been a while since this team and this manager had seen so many fans against them. The Merengues went on a numb mode ever since they won the 2014 FIFA Club World Cup in December and after they saw their 22-match winning streak coming to an end in the beginning of January, they have never been the same again.

Ancelotti brought in a few changes ahead of this 2nd leg clash against Schalke 04, with Coentrão coming over for Marcelo on the left wing and Arbeloa stepping in forCarvajal on the right. Casillas kept his spot in goal, while Varane and Pepe partnered up just like they had done in Bilbao. Sergio Ramos is still injured and recovering from injury...

The hosts' midfield only suffered one change from this past weekend league fixture against Athletic and it was Sami Khedira who replaced Asier Illarramendi in the starting lineup. The German midfielder teamed up with Kroos and Isco, while in the attack, nothing changed in terms of the usual front trio. Carlo Ancelotti keeps backing up the BBC, with Bale, Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo all starting despite a lot of criticism from the media in the past few weeks.

Against all odds, it would be Schalke striking the first blow at the Bernabéu. We were in the 20th minute of the first half, when a cross from the right found Christian Fuchswith plenty of space on the opposite side of the box. The Austrian left-back controlled the ball with his left foot and didn't lose much time before firing a powerful strike straight into Iker Casillas' direction. The hosts' captain however, failed to block it and ended up deflecting it into his own goal...

Real Madrid reacted just 5 minutes later though, when a cross from Kroos allowed for Cristiano Ronaldo to jump higher than everyone else around him and tie the game 1-1. The Portuguese striker may not be going through the best form of his life, but he proved once again that he's always very reliable in front of goal. Schalkewould still grab the lead for a second time in the first half though, when Huntelaarcapitalized on the fact that Casillas was laying on the ground, right after he had gone there in order to defend a first shot from Max Meyer.

The Germans were now only 1 goal away from turning the tie into their favor, but there was one man on the pitch with a different idea in his mind. Cristiano Ronaldowould put things level again in the dying moments of the first half and just like it had happened in his first goal, he did it by scoring again with his head. This time though, the cross came from the left by Fábio Coentrão and Ronaldo basically sprinted to the far post in order to head the ball into the back of the net. It was Cristiano Ronaldo's 9th header goal of the season, the most he has ever had in a single season in his footballing career.

The second half started with the Merengues taking the lead after a great Benzemagoal. The game was in its 52nd minute when the Frenchman decided to take matters into his own feet and dribbled several Schalke defenders before striking the ball into an empty net. It was his 7th goal in this year's Champions League edition, which is already two more than he scored last season.

With a 3-2 scoreline in favor of Real Madrid, few would have imagined that Schalkewas still going to pull off a comeback and put the European champions against the ropes. However, that's precisely what happened... Leroy Sane scored the equalizer in the 57th minute, after curling a perfect shot out of Casillas' reach and make it 3-3 in the Bernabéu. Pressure piled up even more when Huntelaar made the 3-4 in the 84th minute, in a play where a rebound allowed him to go into a 1-on-1 situation againstIker. The Dutchman gave no chance to the Spanish goalkeeper and scored against his former club. The last minutes of the game showed us a very nervous Real Madrid side, but fortunately they managed to not concede any further goals and by doing that, they secured a spot in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals round through a 5-4 aggregate result against Schalke 04.

With his two goals tonight, Cristiano Ronaldo became the all-time top scorer in European competitions (77 goals), surpassing both Raúl and Barcelona's Lionel Messi. Luka Modric also made his return to competition after several months of absence due to injury, by playing the last 30 minutes of tonight's game.

Real Madrid line-up vs Schalke 04:

Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
Defenders: Fábio Coentrão, Pepe, Varane, Arbeloa
Midfielders: Kroos, Khedira, Isco
Attackers: Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema.

Match stats provided by www.ronaldo7.net
Real Madrid	vs	Schalke 04
3	Goals	4
13	Shots	16
10	Shots on goal	11
5	Corner kicks	7
4	Fouls commited	7
2	Yellow cards	1
0	Red cards	0
50%	Ball possession	50%

Cristiano Ronaldo next game will be for the Spanish League against Levante, on the 15th of March of 2015. You can watch Real Madrid vs Levante, Eibar vs Barcelona, Chelsea vs PSG, Fiorentina vs AS Roma, and Bayern Munich vs Shakhtar Donetsk, all matches provided from our football streaming section.

Real Madrid next game:
Real Madrid vs Levante kick-off time (15-03-2015):

Jakarta (Indonesia) | GMT+6: 02:00
Spain (Madrid) | GMT+1: 21:00
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | GMT+0: 20:00
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | GMT-4: 16:00
New York (United States) | GMT-5: 15:00
Los Angeles (United States) | GMT-8 12:00
Beijing (China) | GMT+7: 03:00

Sources: ronaldo7.net / realmadrid.com / bbc.com / espnfc.com / goal.com / sk.com