As Cristiano Ronaldo picked up the ball on the edge of the box and motored on, you knew what was coming; but you weren't really sure.
After picking up that injury in the Euro 2016 Final, he just hasn't looked the same – missing chances, shooting wide and generally going through something that every goalscorer apart from him and Messi do – a goal drought.
In fact, the stats from his last three La Liga matches red - Vs. Bilbao: 11 shots, 0 goals. Vs. Betis: 8 shots, 1 goal. Vs. Eibar: 8 shots, 0 goals.
He has cut a frustrated figure all this season, and his shooting has been as off-colour as it’s ever been. In the Bilbao game, in particular, he missed chances that he would have been buried eyes closed in seasons past.
So when he motored down on the Alaves goal this weekend, not many of the home support were too worried. They should have been! As they say about every cricketer who goes through a barren patch – form is temporary, class is permanent!
Ronaldo showed the truth behind that old adage when he unleashed on the Alaves goal and the ball arrowed into the bottom of the far corner – as unsaveable a shot as he's ever hit.
Watch the goal here -
When Alaves opened the scoring in the 7th minute, it felt like Zinedine Zidane's men would continue to struggle but then a very well taken Ronaldo penalty was soon followed by the Ronaldo rocket that gave Real the lead that they never relinquished.
He was involved all the time - he had a couple of horribly shanked ones (one a spectacular Bicycle kick), he won a penalty and then missed it (it was saved, rather) and then scored a goal that looked much simpler than it was – exchanging passes with Marcelo before jinking away from an Alaves defender and rifling home from close range. That was his 43rd – yes, FORTY-THIRD career hat-trick
Read, Also - Records broken as Ronaldo's hat-trick inspires Real Madrid to 4-1 win over Alaves
His hat-trick took him to 6th highest in the table for highest goalscorers – of all time. It was his awesome second goal that edged him past the great Hungarian, Ferenc Deak, to break into the top six.
For this, and for making the awesomely amazing mundane Ronaldo is #SKAmaze for today!
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