After a relatively quiet first-half the game sprung into life when Gerard Pique scored at the wrong end to gift Real Madrid the lead.
Midway through the second period Leo Messi equalised with a controversial penalty won by Luis Suarez and then that man Ronaldo took centre stage!
With ten minutes remaining, the Portuguese superstar curled in a real beauty and celebrated by removing his shirt and holding it up to the crowd ‘Leo Messi style at the Bernabeu’.
Referee Ricardo De Burgos showed the yellow card and three minutes later came the second booking as CR7 was adjudged to have dived under a challenge from Samuel Umtiti.
In the aftermath of the red card, Ronaldo is clearly seen to push the referee.
There was still time for Marco Asensio to score a stunning late goal to give Real Madrid a 3-1 first-leg lead.
Asensio continued a remarkable record of scoring on his debut for Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup, La Liga, Champions League, Copa del Rey and now the Spanish Super Cup.
The 21-year-old starlet has requested ’emergency talks’ with the club following interest from Arsenal.
As for Ronaldo, the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has banned Ronaldo for one match for drawing the red card and a further four for pushing the official.
This was Ronaldo’s tenth red card; four with Manchester United and six in Spain.
Friend and colleague Sergio Ramos questioned the validity of the red card but the Real Madrid, no-nonsense central defender is no paragon of virtue having amassed a total of twenty-two red cards during his fifteen-year career in Spain.