Respected Spanish journalist Guillem Balague has said that Real Madrid are 'geared to play' for Cristiano Ronaldo, and the Spaniard expects the attacker to have a big say on this weekend's Champions League final with Liverpool.

Ronaldo has scored 15 times in the Champions League this season, but his form was indifferent in the first half of the campaign before a staggering run of goals since the turn of the year.

Balague has insisted that Ronaldo is still "the man for the big occasions", and tipped the Portuguese to once again make the difference in Kiev on Saturday night.

"It is interesting because at the beginning of his career, there were enough clues to suggest Ronaldo was missing in big games. Perhaps we were demanding too much because we were seeing so much during the league, and during the big occasions he went missing sometimes," Balague told Sky Sports News.

"There are other times when he wasn't responsible for that, like when he was used up front as a No 9 on his own by Sir Alex Ferguson, you depend on service and he wasn't particularly happy being a number nine.

"But that era is now gone and he is the man for the big occasions and he will be again. He will have a lot of influence of course, partly because now Real Madrid are geared to play for him.

"He is the one they look for, he starts counter-attacks and he is also at the end of crosses and moves and he is the man that takes Real Madrid to the next level. I'm sure he'll have the opportunity to do that."

Madrid are bidding to win the European Cup for the third straight season.