You might have expected Diego Simeone to be seething at Cristiano Ronaldo for mimicking his crotch-grabbing celebration after engineering a remarkable Champions League escape act.
Ronaldo – who else? – scored a hat-trick capped by an 86th-minute penalty to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first leg against Atletico Madrid and send Juventus through to the quarter-finals.
The former Real Madrid superstar has been the bane of Simeone’s existence with 25 goals in 33 games against Atletico. But he’s probably the one man the fiery Simeone would let get away with such bravado.
“Ronaldo is the best in the world, he can put in these performances on big nights,” Simeone told Sky Italia. “He will have seen how I did it [the celebration] at the Wanda Metropolitano and, like me, was trying to show his character.”
Simeone was charged by Uefa and fined €20,000 (US$22,581) for his celebration in the first leg – it remains to be seen what action, if any, will be taken against Ronaldo.
Either way, he’s on course for his fourth Champions League title in a row, while Real were dumped out in humiliating fashion by Ajax last week.
“In the history of Juve there was never a comeback like this,” Ronaldo said. “That’s why Juventus bought me, to help them in games like this. I do my job and I’m very happy, it was a magical evening. Atleti are a really tough team to face, but we are strong too and proved we deserved to go through.
“It’s too early to talk about the final, let’s take it one step at a time. It had to be a special night and it was, not just for the goals, but for the team and their incredible attitude. This is the mentality you need in the Champions League and we are on the right track.”
The 34-year-old continues to put up ludicrous numbers – this was his eighth hat-trick in the Champions League, and his first for Juve since moving for €112 million (US$126.4 million) in the summer. He now has 61 goals and 14 assists in the knockout stages of the competition – or 75 direct goal involvements in 77 games. He has 61 goals in the group stage too, and is the first player to score 125 Uefa club competition goals.
All in all he holds the records for most Champions League goals, home goals, away goals, group stage goals, knockout goals, final goals, free-kick goals, penalties scored, headed goals, doubles, hat-tricks and assists. “Incredible” doesn’t quite do it justice.
“He’s a living football god,” his former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand said as a pundit on BT Sport.
“It’s ridiculous what he’s doing. All the records – in the Champions League, he’s got every record you can imagine. He’s joint most hat-tricks with [Lionel] Messi.
“This goal [first goal] is like Duncan Ferguson in his prime, attacking the ball, leaving the full back in a heap, that’s what you call desire.”
“This by the way is against an Atletico Madrid team who are renowned for having an unbelievable defence. He’s scored a hat trick!” Ferdinand added.
“He didn’t look nervous did he [for the penalty]? Unbelievable. This is my house, he said. Get out. Ridiculous, ridiculous.”
The second goal was also a thunderous header, awarded thanks to goal line technology after it appeared Jan Oblak had expertly clawed the ball away. “I think he’s the best header of a ball I’ve ever seen,” BT Sport presenter and former England scoring legend Gary Lineker said.
Ronaldo’s relentless march towards footballing immortality continues. He is chasing a sixth Champions League and sixth Ballon d’Or, and you wouldn’t put it past him achieving those feats this season.
While Real Madrid flounder trying to fill the seismic hole left in his absence, Juventus are 18 points clear at the top Italy’s Serie A standings.
Juve are now surely one of the favourites to lift the European Cup in May at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium in Madrid, where Ronaldo may just find himself having the last laugh over Simeone all over again.
