Cristiano Ronaldo must wait to be crowned the Champions League's all-time top scorer... the Real Madrid star could only flirt around the edges against Liverpool

• Cristiano Ronaldo had chance to become the Champions League's all-time top scorer against Liverpool
• However, Real Madrid star failed to find the target during 1-0 victory
• Former Manchester United forward trails Raul by a single goal.

Cristiano Ronaldo failed to overtake Raul as the Champions League's all-time top scorer on Tuesday night

Maybe it was all too easy. Perhaps when he saw the teamsheet, he thought it would be a formality that the record he has been closing in on would be sent tumbling.

This should have been the night Cristiano Ronaldo moved out on his own. A capacity crowd in the Bernabeu Stadium, the eyes of the world watching and a date against one of the biggest names in football. The stage could not have been more perfect for Ronaldo to usurp Raul, as the Champions League's all-time scorer.

The coronation, however, must wait. Worse still, if Lionel Messi engages overdrive in Amsterdam on Wednesday, when Barcelona duel with Ajax, Ronaldo could find himself in third place on the list when Real return to Champions League combat at the end of the month in Switzerland. 

It's not very often Ronaldo disappoints – can you use such a word about one of the greatest players of this, and any other generation? – but here was one such occasion. Given a standing ovation at Anfield when he faced Liverpool last month, this time Ronaldo could only flirt around the edges.

Few would have expected this. At Real's Valdebebas training retreat in the days leading up to this contest, the Spanish press were asking questions of Carlo Ancelotti that suggested the two goals Ronaldo needed were a formality. Would he go it alone to get to the magical figure of 72?

'I have to speak about Cristiano Ronaldo a lot,' Ancelotti replied, a little wearily. 'The last time I said it's hard to find a new word to describe him. He' s a fantastic player and professional and that's it. He works hard for his team.'
He does more than that, of course. Having scored in each of his last 12 games, Ronaldo gives this supreme Real Madrid side a devastating cutting edge, frequently adding the stardust that makes them what Brendan Rodgers, and many others, describe as 'the best team in the world'.

Yet here it was missing. Ronaldo was first off the pitch at the final whistle, shaking hands with nobody other than Ancelotti, as the Bernabeu celebrated a routine 1-0 win. The cricket score and the slaying of Liverpool's reserves never materialised.

Truth be told, he didn't appear to be in the mood. When the teams lined up before kick-off, Ronaldo had his back to the fence that kept Liverpool and Madrid apart. There was no dead-eyed intensity, just the feel that he was going out for a training exercise.

A sense that his night would not go the way he hoped arrived after just five. Looking to take a pass just outside the centre circle, Joe Allen charged into him, spiriting the ball away and sending Ronaldo to the turf. He jumped, gesticulated and expressed his displeasure but there was no foul.

Had he not seen Simon Mignolet beat away a precise effort in the 10th minute, perhaps he would have ended up with the match ball. An early goal would have invigorated him and inflicted a blow into Liverpool's midriff from which they would have struggled to recover.

But that was as good as it got. He got no change from Kolo Toure – a combination of words few would have expected to be put together – and was restricted to long range free-kicks, which he fizzed at Mignolet.

One such effort in the 34th minute created the greatest theatre of the night.30 yards from goal, the beat of a drum and clapping of hands started slowly and got faster and faster as Ronaldo began his run up. They expected to scream goal, as they always do, but it wasn't to be. Not this time.