As the tournament's highest-ever scorer and one of the selected few men to secure five titles, Cristiano Ronaldo has forever inscribed his name into the history of the Champions League.
Real Madrid's iconic no.7 delivered stellar performances one after another, but there's one specific we wanted to recall – the one when Cristiano netted a hat-trick against Wolfsburg eight years ago, on April 12, 2016.
Former Zinedine Zidane's assistant coach, David Bettoni, recalled the day vividly:
"It was usual for him that, before every game, he would call me at the end of training to practice free-kicks. We would both stay on the pitch for a while, but that day was different. He told me what was going to happen.
'Tomorrow, I’m going to score three goals.' 'Only you can do it,' I told him.
"And Cristiano kept his promise: he scored three goals in a 3-0 win. We qualified for the semi-finals. Coming back from 2-0 down in the Champions League is not easy, but after that moment we all knew that we could really win it all."
While we can't bring back those moments, we can certainly relive them through the highlights. Enjoy!
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