Cristiano Ronaldo believes that Chelsea are not among the teams that have been tipped to dominate in the Champions League this year. CR7 thinks that the Blues have changed from what they used to be.
There is more than 3 weeks to go before matches of the UEFA Champions League’s Last 16 stage take place. However, Cristiano Ronaldo has already analysed the competition in general in terms of the favourites.

In an interview with reporters, the Real Madrid star explained that the Blues cannot rank themselves alongside Barcelona or Manchester United in Europe. Cristiano Ronaldo declared:

“Manchester United, Barcelona and us (Real Madrid) are favourites. Then, I’d say that there is a small group which includes Bayern Munich, AC Milan and Internazionale.

“Chelsea? I don’t consider them as favourites because they’ve changed a lot.”

In 2008, ex-Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo faced Chelsea in the final of the Champions League. The mission to win the cup proved to be difficult as the match had to be decided through penalties. In the end, Cristiano Ronaldo and his team mates prevailed as that night in Moscow marked CR7’s first and last Champions League title triumph so far.

As a Real Madrid player, Cristiano Ronaldo is yet to go anywhere further than the Round of 16 stage in Europe. Last season, Los Blancos got caught in bad luck as Olympique Lyon defeated them 2-1 on aggregate. This year, Real Madrid have once again been paired with the French side and Cristiano Ronaldo is relishing this prospect.

“We didn’t expect to lose against Lyon last year. I think that we were better than them but we failed to show it.

“I’m pretty sure that things will be totally different this year. I’m happy to be playing against Lyon again and I’m confident of winning the tie.”

Real Madrid will face Olympique Lyon in France late in February, before hosting the French at the Bernabeu in March. Will Cristiano Ronaldo be able to increase his 4-goals tally in the Champions League?