The stats behind Ronaldo’s match-winning performance against Atletico

It was only ever going to be one person, let’s be honest. If Juventus were going to successfully overturn a 2-0 first leg deficit against Atletico Madrid, then the Old Lady would need an imperious Cristiano Ronaldo display. And that is exactly what they got.

Ronaldo crashed in two headers and converted an 86th-minute penalty to dump old rivals Atletico out of the Champions League and guide his new club, Juventus, into the quarter-finals. It was a superb Juventus team performance in truth, with the likes of Federico Bernardeschi also playing integral parts in the victory.

However, it’s impossible to look beyond Ronaldo. He was the WhoScored Man of the Match, finishing with a rating of 9.75. Another Champions League hat-trick. His eighth in the competition’s history, level with Barcelona star Leo Messi and five more than any other player. Last night’s treble is his second in the Champions League against Atletico, both in the knockout stage of the competition. Both equally as devastating.

In fact, Ronaldo has scored four hat-tricks against Atletico in his career, three of them in his last eight appearances against the Spanish side. He is the only player in Diego Simeone’s 418 matches in charge of the Rojiblancos to even score a hat-trick against Atletico. He’s done it four times.

Ronaldo is quite simply the king of Champions League knockout football. He has scored 63 career goals at the business end of the competition, at least 23 more than any other player. He is the top goalscorer in the competition and more than half of those have remarkably come in knockout matches.

Emotions got the better of Ronaldo following Juventus’ 2-0 first leg defeat but the 34-year-old had the last laugh, as he so often does. The pressure on his shoulders heading into Tuesday’s match would have been immense and it’s because of that which makes his performance even more astonishing.

Juventus invested more than €100m to sign Ronaldo from Real Madrid last summer after winning Serie A for the seventh season in a row. Ronaldo was not signed to help the Old Lady prolong their domestic dominance, but to push them over the line in Europe.

The Italian giants last won the Champions League 23 years ago and have been losing finalists in two of the last four seasons.

When asked about his performance last night, Ronaldo coolly responded: “This is why Juventus brought me here, to help do things that they have never done before. This is the mentality you need to win in the Champions League.”