Cristiano Ronaldo scored a perfect hat-trick inside the first 32 minutes as Juventus bounce back from their Champions League exit by beating Cagliari 3-1 away in Serie A on Sunday evening.
The Italian side were dumped out of the Champions League last-16 this by FC Porto this week and their skipper faced criticism by football lovers. There were rumours of a Turin exit for Ronaldo, who has less than 18 months remaining on his deal.
The Portuguese has been unable to lead the Old Lady (Juventus) to Champions league triumph in his three seasons in Turin.
He was left unmarked in Cagliari’s penalty area to meet Juan Cuadrado‘s corner to send a towering header beyond Cagliari’s goalkeeper Alessio Cragno after just 10 minutes. The goal that means he has now scored in all 18 stadiums he has visited in Serie A.
Ronaldo was also in the centre of the second goal, when he was brought down in the penalty box by Cragno, the 36-year-old stood up to the task to take the resulting penalty which he smashed into the back of the net with his right-foot.
The five-time-ballon D’or winner soon completed a hattrick as he performed a trademark step-over before hammering a left-footed shot past Cragno to mark the second fastest hat-trick of his career, after the treble he scored in 20 minutes for Real Madrid against Espanyol in September 2015.
It was the Portuguese 57th hat-trick of his career as he scored a perfect hat-trick; a right footed goal, left footed goal and a header.
Cagliari pulled a goal back in the 60th minute when Simeone fired in a low shot into Juventus net.
Ronaldo had a big chance to score his fourth with the last kick of the game when one-on-one with Cragno but the keeper denied him with an excellent block.
Although the Portuguese declined to give a post-match interview when asked at full-time, Juventus captain, Giorgio Chiellini faced the cameras instead, saying;
Our strength has always been to respond on the pitch and we did that today, Cristiano above all. We played like Juve and as a team, with our strengths and weaknesses. But with this main ingredient we can finish the season well, we’ll see where we are by mid-May.
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