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Juventus superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is undoubtedly one of the greatest players to have graced the UEFA Champions League.
Ronaldo, the first player to have scored 100 goals in the competition and also to have done so for a single club (Real Madrid), is unsurprisingly the all-time top-scorer in Champions League history with 130 goals.
Among a plethora of records held by the Portuguese maestro in the Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo has the most knockout-stage goals (67) in the competition and is the only player to have scored ten Champions League goals for three different clubs.
Italian giants Juventus bought Cristiano Ronaldo in the summer of 2018 with the singular aim of conquering the Champions League, and the Portugal captain has certainly not disappointed on that front.
In fact, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored all seven of the Bianconeri's knockout-stage goals in the Champions League during this period. However, Juventus have not managed to get past the quarter-final stage in two attempts.
5 Champions League records Cristiano Ronaldo could break this season:
Cristiano Ronaldo took 30 games to open his account in the Champions League after making his debut in the competition as a precocious teenager in the 2003-04 edition of the competition. But the Portuguese legend hasn't looked back since then.
On that note, let us have a look at five records Cristiano Ronaldo could break in the 2020-21 Champions League.
#1 Score in a 15th consecutive season in the Champions League
It might be surprising to know that a prolific goalscorer like Cristiano Ronaldo drew a blank in his first three Champions League seasons spanning 18 games. However, the floodgates opened for the future Portugal captain once he scored his first goals in the competition.
Ronaldo netted a brace in Manchester United's 7-1 win over AS Roma in the second leg of the 2006-07 Champions League quarter-finals. Since then, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 128 times in 140 subsequent games -across 14 different seasons and for three different clubs - in the blue riband event of European club football.
To put that number into perspective, only three players - Raul (15), Karim Benzema (15) and Lionel Messi (16) - have had longer scoring stints in the competition.
#2 Score against a 34th different opponent in the Champions League
In his 17th campaign in the Champions League last season, Cristiano Ronaldo scored in Juventus' 3-0 win over Bayer Leverkusen.
It marked a then record-equalling 33rd different opponent against whom Ronaldo has found the back of the net. Real Madrid legend Raul also scored against as many opponents in the competition, while Lionel Messi has done so against a record 36.
Among 50 different clubs faced by Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League, only 17 have been able to keep the Portugal captain from scoring.
However, Ronaldo has the opportunity to score against a 34th different team in the competition as Juventus have been clubbed with La Liga giants Barcelona in the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League.
Interestingly, Barcelona have not conceded a goal against Cristiano Ronaldo in as many as five games, an anomaly that the 35-year-old striker would like to rectify when he meets the Blaugrana this year.
#3 Become the most capped player in the Champions League
With 170 appearances in the competition, Cristiano Ronaldo is already the most-capped outfield player in the history of the Champions League.
If Juventus reach the quarter-finals of the 2020-21 edition of the competition, Ronaldo, who missed the Bianconeri's Matchday 1 game and is a doubtful starter for the second Matchday as well, will become the player with the most Champions League appearances.
Only the retired former Real Madrid custodian Iker Casillas (177) currently stands ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo in the list of most appearances in the competition, with Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez (151) in a distant third place.
#4 Score a ninth hat-trick
Cristiano Ronaldo has broken a plethora of scoring records in the Champions League. One of them is the number of hat-tricks he has recorded in the competition.
By scoring thrice against Atletico Madrid in the second leg of Juventus' 2018-19 Champions League Round of 16 clash last year, Cristiano Ronaldo not only brought up his first hat-trick for the Bianconeri but also equalled Lionel Messi (8) for most hat-tricks in the competition.
In the process, Cristiano Ronaldo became only the 11th player (third active) in Champions League history to score hat-tricks for two different clubs (Real Madrid-7, Juventus-1).
#5 Win a sixth Champions League title
By winning a hat-trick of Champions League titles in as many seasons with Real Madrid in 2017-18, Cristiano Ronaldo became only the first player in the history of the competition to win five titles.
Ronaldo is already the only player in the Champions League to score in the final for two different winning teams and the only one to score in three different title matches in the competition.
If Cristiano Ronaldo manages to help end Juventus' two-and-a-half decade long drought in the competition this season, the 35-year-old will become the first player to win six Champions League titles and go level with Paco Gento when the competition was known as the European Champions Clubs' Cup.
