Cristiano Ronaldo's tears tell us more than his dismissal about the heavy weight of Juventus' pursuit of greatness

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Tears rolled down Cristiano Ronaldo's cheeks and in his eyes burned a saline-flooded sense of injustice. A sense of being wronged.

For once, he had been called on his petulance. A man who, in his time at Real Madrid, got away with dozens of off-the-ball incidents that referees dealt with far too leniently finally found the pendulum swing the other way and now faces an anxious wait to find out if he'll be able to play at Old Trafford again , for what might be his final appearance at the Theatre of Dreams.

The grab at Jeison Murillo's hair wasn't exactly life-threatening but the referee saw it clearly, having missed the original (non-)incident that had seen the Colombian defender fall tamely to the ground. Ronaldo, he of years of play-acting, took umbrage with the tables being turned. He lost his cool. He might claim he was trying to hasten Murillo getting up off the floor but the moment you start doing that by the hair is the moment you cease being able to claim you were genuinely trying to be helpful.

It is hard to imagine that as Ronaldo slumped to the turf wailing, then stood on the sideline with tears spilling down his face, he was actually concerned with a trip to Manchester United. That was likely a later realisation, and while it was one that may have hurt it is also one that may not come to pass, with a single-game suspension the only sanction confirmed at this point.

Juventus won this game , which is all that should matter, but in a tournament that Ronaldo has so dominated for so long, the Portuguese's overflowing anxiety to resume that iron grip over this competition fuelled his emotional outburst. A man who wanted to be the hero won't be painted as the villain, not after his team secured the result they needed and a particularly significant one en route to getting out of this group. But his name is on people's lips for the wrong reasons and that pecks at his insecurities, those that were so visible even in the saccharine documentary film about his life and that have been clear to long-term observers. The hero complex runs deep. Any negative outcome derails the entire train in a way that always seems totally out of whack with a normal reaction because 'normal' is not a word that applies to this man. Not in any circumstance.

Ronaldo's determination and drive are a huge part of what has made him so great, a generationally-brilliant goalscorer who will go down in history as one of football's most productive players ever. He boasts an incredible ability to believe that the world is against him, determined that he fail, and given how tough his childhood and background were, he can be forgiven for how that has made him.

But years of unparalleled success have not changed this outlook and that is something his inner circle - principally family with a couple of close friends - all share. His sister, Katia, reacted to the dismissal in Valencia by saying: "Shame on football. Justice will be done. They want to destroy my brother but God never sleeps, shameful."

If 'they' wanted to destroy Ms Aveiro's brother then they might have prevented him winning three back-to-back Champions League titles, you'd imagine, but the reality is not as important as the perception when perceived injustice is what fires your greatness.

"They will pay dearly for these tears," she added.

Only a man willing to completely mislead themselves in the name of self-improvement could think that there was a conspiracy against his greatness after achieving so much. Ronaldo is the favourite for the Ballon d'Or, one of the most highly-paid players on the planet and he has been brought to Turin by Juventus as an almost messianic figure. He is a Totem for Juve making the next step. "Look what we bought, we are serious about winning the Champions League."

With a little better luck in the last few seasons Juve might already have won it, nixing that thirst for a first European Cup since the tainted victory in 1996 that so pushed them into signing Ronaldo. He did similar in Madrid, helping the Bernabeu club to their tenth European Cup and the first since 2002 - la décima - and the mission in Italy follows the same blueprint.

That is why Ronaldo feels such pressure at Juventus, because he is seen by all in their orbit as the grand facilitator between being a big club and a great one. Those tears reflect the fear that if he's not on the field, he can't be that man. They won this game without him, fine, but the need to be great is greater than all else. The tears aren't just tears, they tell a story of self-torture in the pursuit of a Nirvana that might never come. But what if Ronaldo is already there? What if you can't see football's Mount Olympus because you are already sat at the summit? The intensity of being Ronaldo must be simply exhausting.

When you cut out the conspiracies, what is left is a simple belief: the only way Cristiano Ronaldo knows how to make teams great is by being great himself. Every moment he isn't on the field he can't achieve that and achieving, excelling, is all that he has ever done. An hour of watching from the sidelines and another 90 minutes of that against Young Boys alters nothing for Ronaldo. The tears may dry, but they will not truly be gone until Juventus win the Champions League.