Cristiano Ronaldo back to his very best with his first Serie A hat-trick

Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against Cagliari and with that, he has achieved a milestone of scoring against every Serie A team just in his second season with Juventus.

Maurizio Sarri was very pleased with the forward's performance and expressed his concern after seeing the Portuguese struggle with a knee problem.

The 34-year-old appears to have rediscovered his mojo having gone three games without scoring at the starting few days of November when he was subbed twice as he battled a knee difficulty.

The Bianconeri played his best Serie A game, scoring thrice and got an assist to his name too.
He also became only the second player to score a hat-trick in all the top flights, the Premier League, Serie A and La Liga, Alexis Sanchez is the first one to do so.

The Portugal captain and forward scored the 36th hat-trick of his career, increasing the gap with his greatest rival Lionel Messi, who has 34, while Luis Suarez is very distant with 16.

Ronaldo's goal also made him the only player to score at least one goal in one of Europe's top five leagues in each of the last 18 years, taking him all the way to his first goal for Manchester United against Portsmouth in 2003.

38-year-old Real Betis forward Joaquin and 41-year-old Werder Bremen striker Claudio Pizarro are the only two players active who can match this coup.

Ronaldo also has equalled the international record for most hat-tricks that is held by Sweden's Sven Rydell, with nine trebles in total out of the total tally of 56.

The 34-year old is also the UEFA Champions League top scorer with 124 goals, again leaving his adversary, Messi by 18 goals.

All these goals have come in a total of 160 games but what makes this player phenomenal is that it took him 30 games in the tournament to register his first.

The former Real Madrid man has 63 goals to his name in the Champions League knockout out stages, Lionel Messi taking the second spot with 40 goals.

The Portuguese has been involved in 77 goals in 77 knockout matches (63 and 14 goals and assists respectively.)

He also has 22 headers in the UEFA Champions League, more than any other player.

The 34-year old has been a part UCL semi-finals in 11 of his last 12 seasons. CR7 has five UCL titles and is the joint second on the all-time winners behind only Paco Gento, the Real Madrid legend who won six in the 50's and 60's.

All these records show how Ronaldo is still one of the best players in the world and has a lot to achieve, 10 goals behind  the top international scorer Ali Daei.

Featured image credits- goal.com