Cristiano Ronaldo bounced back from his Champions League disgrace in style.- The 36-year-old scored a perfect hat-trick as
Juventus beat Cagliari on Sunday. - The hat-trick meant Ronaldo broke another one of Brazilian star Pele's disputed scoring records.
Cristiano Ronaldo bounced back from his Champions League disgrace last week to score a perfect hat-trick as Juventus beat Cagliari 3-1 on Sunday.
The 36-year-old was slammed by the Italian media following Juventus' exit from Europe at the hands of FC Porto, with one newspaper saying he "betrayed" the club, and former manager Fabio Capello accusing him of making an "unforgivable error."
Ronaldo had turned his back in the defensive wall before what proved to be a winning Porto free-kick in the dying embers of Tuesday's game.
Never one to take a backwards step, however, Ronaldo answered his critics in just over nine minutes against Cagliari, thumping home a header from Juan Cuadrado's corner to give Juventus the lead.
15 minutes later, he doubled his side's advantage from the penalty spot with his favored right foot after having been cleared out in the area by Cagliari keeper Alessio Cragno.
The Portuguese forward then sealed his hat-trick - the 57th of his career - shortly after with a fine left foot finish.
-Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) March 14, 2021
Following the victory, Juventus manager Andrea Pirlo praised Ronaldo for his outstanding performance.
"Ronaldo was angry like the rest of the team, because our elimination brought sadness to the whole group," said Pirlo.
"He reacted like a true champion with a hat-trick."
Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny also praised Ronaldo, saying: "We dropped off a bit at the end, but we put in a very good performance overall. The criticism didn't bother me - what bothered me was being knocked out of the Champions League, having not played well.
"Then, as I said, you have to respond on the field. Cristiano did exactly that, with a perfect hat-trick."
Ronaldo has now scored 23 times for Juventus in Serie A this season in as many games, making him the division's top scorer ahead of Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku.
Sunday's hat-trick also moved Ronaldo ahead of Brazilian icon Pele on one measure of career goals scored. The hat-trick took Ronaldo to 770 career goals.
Pele officially scored 757 career goals, according to the RSSSF, but maintains that he scored 767 official goals, plus another 500 or so in unofficial games, taking his overall tally to 1,283 - a number that has been widely disputed.
Ronaldo previously overtook Pele's 757 goal mark in January, making him the second-highest scorer in history, behind only Czech star Josef Bican.
"I'm filled with joy and pride as I acknowledge the goal that put's me on top of the World's goalscoring list, overcoming Pelé's record, something that I could never have dreamed of while growing up as a child from Madeira," Ronaldo said on Instagram after the game.
"Thanks to all of those who took part of this amazing journey with me. To my teammates, to my opponents, to the fans of the beautiful game all over the World and, above all, to my family and close friends: trust me when I say that I couldn't have done it without you."
Pele, for the first time, acknowledged that Ronaldo has overtaken him on goals scored, saying in his own Instagram post: "Congratulations on breaking my record of goals in official matches. My only regret is not being able to give you a hug today."