Tuesday evening was a barnstormer for the Champions League, as Cristiano Ronaldo once again stole the show whilst Manchester City showed no mercy against Schalke.
Ronaldo's Juventus, trailing Atletico Madrid 2-0 after the first leg in Spain, attacked right from kick-off and the Portuguese superstar eerily made his own prematch prediction come to fruition by scoring a hat-trick to send the Old Lady through.
— Scott Saunders (@_scottsaunders) March 12, 2019
The 34-year-old might have 'slowed down' in the Champions League this season compared to previous years, but Tuesday's three-goal tally took his UCL total to seven, and it was the manner of which he scored the goals - with Juventus facing a disappointing exit from the competition - that got the Twitterverse talking.
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— Arjun Pradeep (@IndianRegista) March 13, 2019
Front pages of Italian, Spanish, Portuguese & British papers headline on @Cristiano's Juve making a comeback vs Atlético.
'Wrath of Gods' , 'Monstrous', 'Martians'.
'Cristiano imposes his law', 'King of UCL'.
'The legend continues', 'CR forever' pic.twitter.com/bqLZxhXJhc
#Cristiano_Ronaldo heat map from last match. pic.twitter.com/FwGjgSUfEw
— Muminimum (@muminmm2) March 13, 2019
Cristiano Ronaldo always pays his debts. pic.twitter.com/CqkHRiSkLz
— FootballFunnys (@FootballFunnnys) March 13, 2019
Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League:
— Tosin Olugbenga (@TosinOlugbenga) March 13, 2019
✅ Most goals
✅ Most home goals
✅ Most away goals
✅ Most group stage goals
✅ Most knock-out goals
✅ Most final goals
✅ Most free-kicks
✅ Most penalties
✅ Most headers
✅ Most braces
✅ Most hat-tricks
✅ Most assists pic.twitter.com/04gsqVKUbb
Meanwhile, over in Manchester, on any other night the 7-0 beatdown the Citizens imposed on Schalke would have been the main talking point of the evening's action.
But with Ronaldo's heroics over in Turin, the Citizens dropped to being a footnote, despite scoring seven - SEVEN (7) - goals to win their tie 10-2 on aggregate.
It means the Premier League outfit have now scored 139 goals in 48 matches in all competitions (26 in eight in the Champions League), making City one of the favourites for the Champions League this season.
Tonight is the seventh time this season that Manchester City have scored six or more goals.
— Daniel Storey (@danielstorey85) March 12, 2019
More times than Real Madrid, Barcelona, Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Bayern Munich combined.
Please stop, @ManCity.#s04 #MCIS04 #SchalkeUS 6-0 pic.twitter.com/cQXDIMMW7b
— Schalke 04 USA (@s04_us) March 12, 2019
Manchester City - Goalscoring Elite.
— City Xtra (@City_Xtra) March 12, 2019
7-0 | The joint largest winning margin in Champions League Knock-Out Stage history.
10-2 | The second highest aggregate win in Champions League Knock-Out Stage history. #MCFC pic.twitter.com/5THA9U3hkP
Attention now turns to Wednesday evening's fixtures to see who will join Juventus and City in the draw for the last eight of the Champions League - Barcelona or Lyon; Liverpool or Bayern Munich.
Of course, after Tuesday's evenings showing, teams must already be dreading the prospect of facing either giant (Juventus, not Ronaldo) in the next stage of Europe's biggest club competition.
Source : 90min