Diego Alves saved a first-half penalty from Cristiano Ronaldo and produced numerous important saves as Valencia held Real Madrid to a 2-2 draw at the Bernabeu on Saturday.
Ronaldo had scored in four consecutive appearances against Valencia prior to Saturday’s game. Per J.L. Guerrero of AS (in Spanish), he was just one goal away from matching the Madrid tally of the legendary Alfredo Di Stefano.
And Valencia were acutely aware of the threat he was likely to pose. “Stopping him will give us a better chance of success,” Nuno said in his pre-match press conference on Friday, as per Julian Burgos of AS.