By Oliver Trust
BERLIN, April 24 (Xinhua) -- Jerome Boateng is known for being laid back and softly spoken. Some say his speed of speech has a calming effect. Without a doubt, the 29-year-old is what you would call a well-balanced person; not much seems to worry him.
In advance of the first leg of the Champions League semifinal against Real Madrid this Wednesday evening, only one thing appears to be perturbing the central defender. The Berlin-born player must have answered a million questions about an opponent that he has crossed swords with many times.
Some assume Cristiano Ronaldo must be haunting Boateng's dreams after having lost five of six games against the world class striker. The German international would never admit that it is true, instead he will tell you how the 33-year-old Portuguese genius will be stopped.
Boateng is driven by endless optimism and is hoping the fans will for once not see a Ronaldo goal. The Madrid star scored nine times in the last six games against Bayern.
"You can't be more complete as a striker than he is," Boateng emphasized. Left foot, right foot, headers "he does it all to perfection."
And in front of the goal, the Bavarian defender says, "he's a machine."
Bayern Munich will have to be a fully concentrated team for the whole 90 minutes if they are to stop a player that seems unstoppable. 120 goals in 150 Champions League games tell the story. Or from a German perspective, 26 goals in 21 games against German teams.
In the 2017/2018 campaign, Ronaldo has scored 15 goals in 10 games. He seems even stronger after changing positions from the wing to the job in the middle.
In 2017, he scored five of the six Real goals when the Spanish side beat Bayern 6-3 on aggregate in the quarterfinals.
"You can only stop him as a team," Boateng insists. If they do want to spoil Ronaldo's day, they will have to stop passes and crosses getting to him. Interrupting counter attacks and "allow as little space for him as possible."
Boateng says no team can stop him entirely, but his side will try.
"We have to close him down, on every centimeter on the pitch," Boateng commented when adding Bayern should not forget about the rest of the team which is full of world-class performers.
Boateng feels stopping Ronaldo is no life insurance but it would make life easier. "It's 50 percent of the job but you still face all the others in the white shirt," the Bavarian defender emphasizes.
Despite Ronaldo's unique goal scoring record, there is no need to be pessimistic, said Boateng.
His own record means he can be optimistic. "It's fifty-fifty," he said. With the German national team, Boateng's experience is more positive as "we most of the time managed to neutralize him like when beating Portugal 4-0 at the 2014 World Cup and 1-0 at the 2012 European Championships."
Once he reports, he and Bayern could beat Ronaldo and Madrid (2012 in the Champions League). Boateng though had to admit he twice lost (in 2016 and 2017) important games and Bayern was eliminated by the Spanish side.
"It is obvious that he has teammates of a higher quality when playing with Madrid," Boateng underlined.
Before leaving for training, Boateng answered a question about Ronaldo turning-up in his dreams by smiling and saying that he does not. It is very likely he told the truth, because the Bayern defender probably knows Ronaldo's face better than any other player.
