“He was always aware that I was there” – Ex-Manchester United defender Phil Bardsley on playing better against Cristiano Ronaldo in Premier League

Former Manchester United defender Phil Bardsley has opened up on playing against talismanic striker Cristiano Ronaldo. Bardsley feels the top rated players brought the best out of him during his playing days.

Ronaldo and Bardsley shared the Manchester United’s dressing room in middle of 2000s and the latter then moved to clubs like Sheffield United, Aston Villa, Burnley on loan and then eventually signed a contract with Sunderland.

Bardsley said in an interview with talkSPORT, “Probably not but he was always aware that I was there and I was playing against him.”

“I always believed I played better against the better players. I’m not saying we won those games but I always felt against better players that I had something to prove.”

The Scot added that defenders didn’t want to get embarrassed while playing against Ronaldo as he has all the crazy skills and was a livewire during his heydays.

“You didn’t want to be embarrassed,” he continued. “You used to see the battles between Ronaldo and Ashley Cole. Back and forth, neither of them were giving in.”

“As a player you want to go out there and do your best,” Bardsley added.

On the other hand, former Chelsea goalkeeper Asmir Begovic opened up on the challenge of facing strikers like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

He told talkSPORT, “Those were great memories, tough, tough challenges for sure. I played against Messi once in the [2014] World Cup against Argentina [2-1 defeat] which was an incredible experience. And then Ronaldo at the absolute peak of his powers [Euro 2012 play-offs].”

“They were in the prime of their careers and were unstoppable, there were moments where if they really wanted to, they would destroy teams. And they would obviously make it very difficult for a goalkeeper, so I enjoyed those battles and it was one of the biggest challenges,” he added.