Ronaldo does what Juventus hired him for Seven-star City demolish Schalke
Portuguese star scores hat-trick in crunch game as Italian side overturns 0-2 deficit against Atletico
TURIN: Juventus have never before overturned a two-goal deficit at home in European competition — but then they never had Cristiano Ronaldo with them.
If the aim of buying the fivetime World Player of the Year really was to make a difference on big Champions League nights, it certainly paid off on Tuesday.
The 34-year-old got his eighth Champions League hat-trick, two headers and a late penalty, as Juve overturned a 2-0 last-16 first leg deficit against Atletico Madrid by winning 3-0. Juventus reached the quarter-finals with a 3-2 aggregate victory.
“It was meant to be a special night and it was, not just for my goals but for the attitude we showed,” said Ronaldo.
“That is the sort of mentality you need to win the Champions League. This was why Juventus brought me here. To help do things that they have never done before,” he added.
It was all very different to the first leg where former Real Madrid forward Ronaldo was jeered by Atletico fans and the home side’s second goal took a deflection off him.
Angry at the barracking, the Portuguese replied by holding up five fingers to remind them of the five times he had won Europe’s elite club competition.
Ronaldo, who one year ago scored a memorable bicycle kick goal for Real at Juve in a Champions League match and was applauded off the field by the home fans in Turin, had also begun to look stale in recent Serie A matches. But he was rested against Udinese on Friday and was raring to go on Tuesday.
Atletico, who had not conceded a goal in their previous four Champions League ties, packed their defence believing they could shut Ronaldo out again.
They made no serious attempt to get an away goal which could have put a different complexion on the tie and paid the price.
TAUNTS SIMEONE
Having lifted Juventus into the quarter-finals with a spectacular hat-trick, Ronaldo goaded his old enemy by mimicking Diego Simeone’s crotch-grabbing celebra-
MAGICAL RONALDO LIFTS JUVE
Juventus had last won the Champions League title in 1995-96. Since then, they have reached the final five times but in vain. Desperate to reclaim European glory, the Italian champions bought Ronaldo from Real Madrid for €100 million.
And on Tuesday night, Ronaldo proved his worth by scoring from two clinical headers and then slotting in the winning penalty to script a brilliant comeback. It was only the fourth time under Massimiliano Allegri that Juventus managed to score thrice in a Champions League tie at home. tion on front of the Spanish fans.
After scoring the decisive penalty four minutes from time, he turned towards the Atletico fans and replicated Simeone’s gesture after the Spaniards’ 2-0 first leg win by grasping his genitals and thrusting out his groin.
“He will have seen how I did it
MAN FOR THE MOMENT
Despite a mammoth task at hand, Ronaldo knew exactly what was required. Besides constantly motivating the players and the crowd, Ronaldo could often be seen leaping the highest in the box to meet a cross, shrugging off opposition defenders at will.
The hat-trick was not a surprise either. Pressure has often brought the best out of Ronaldo on Champions League nights. The treble reminded fans of a similar effort from him had helped his former club Real Madrid go past Wolfsburg in the 2016 quarter-final tie after they were 0-2 down after the first leg. at the Wanda Metropolitano and, like me, was trying to show his character,” said Simeone, who was fined 20,000 euros ($22,000) by UEFA for his gesture. “Cristiano Ronaldo is the best in the world.”
Defensive specialists Atletico held off the Juventus pressure until the 27th minute, when
RONALDO IMPACT ON STOCK MARKET
Juventus’ shares soared by over 20 per cent on the Milan stock exchange on Wednesday, the morning after Cristiano Ronaldo's hat-trick helped Juventus stay alive in the Champions League campaign. The club's shares jumped by 23 per cent after the Milan stock exchange opened before dipping to 17.09 per cent later. Ronaldo met a pin-point Bernardeschi cross to score the opener.
After the break Ronaldo levelled the tie with his second goal with a move he began from his own half with a pass to Leonardo Spinazzola down the left. The ball was worked to Joao Cancelo, who crossed into the penalty area for
ATLETICO’S DEFENSIVE TACTICS BACKFIRE
Diego Simeone’s Atletico packed the defence hoping to shut out Ronaldo as they did in the first leg in Madrid. But they perhaps sat too deep to hold on to the 2-0 lead. Simeone’s side did not have a single shot on target in the 90 minutes.
The Serie A side bombarded the Atletico area with crosses, and a tactical switch that saw Federico Bernardeschi move to the left added more potency to their attack, which resulted in their first goal. And once Ronaldo equalised the tie on aggregate minutes into the second half, chances of an Atletico comeback looked extremely unlikely. Ronaldo, whose powerful header was pushed out by Oblak but not before it had crossed over the line. Teenager Moise Kean missed a chance to put Juve ahead just after coming off the bench, sending wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.
But the decisive goal came with four minutes left when Bernardeschi burst into the penalty area from the left and was brought down by Angel Correa. Ronaldo made no mistake from the spot to score his 25th goal against Atletico, and fourth hat-trick, to spark pandemonium among the home crowd. LONDON: Rampant Manchester City demolished a woeful Schalke 7-0 to complete a 10-2 aggregate win and become the third English side into the quarter-finals of the Champions League on Tuesday.
City’s record home win in Europe did not look likely after a quiet opening 35 minutes but once Sergio Aguero began the rout from the penalty spot it became embarrassingly easy as City reached the last-eight for the third time in four years.
Aguero doubled City’s lead three minutes later and the impressive Leroy Sane made it 3-0 before half-time.
Raheem Sterling and Bernardo Silva finished off flowing moves after the break and youngster Phil Foden bagged his first European goal before Gabriel Jesus made it seven, rounding off the biggest ever Champions League defeat for a German side.
City, who trailed 2-1 in the away leg with 10 men before turning it around late on, join local rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur in Friday’s quarter-final draw with Liverpool in action against Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
With Real Madrid and Paris Saint-germain having been knocked out, Guardiola’s side will fancy their chances of going all the way for the first time in the competition. Schalke’s players were barracked by their own fans at the end of a miserable night for Domenico Tedesco’s side who face a fight to preserve their Bundesliga status.
The sight of Sane causing so much discomfort for his former club hardly helped their mood.
He was a handful all night but it was the ever-reliable Aguero who got the ball rolling.
The Argentine coolly dinked his penalty down the middle after Silva was bundled over by Jeffrey Bruma. Aguero then took advantage of Sterling’s backheel to make it 2-0.