Cristiano Ronaldo proved Atletico Madrid’s Champions League dream destroyer once more with a hat-trick as Real Madrid took a commanding 3-0 semi-final, first leg lead here.
Ronaldo extended his lead as the all-time top scorer in Madrid derby matches by taking his tally to 21 and put Real firmly on course to defend their title in the final in Cardiff on June 3.
The Portuguese rewarded a bright Real start by heading home Casemiro’s deflected cross after just 10 minutes yesterday.
Ronaldo then smashed home from just inside the area and turned home Lucas Vazquez’s cross in the final 20 minutes as Real continued their domination of Atletico having eliminated them in the Champions League for the past three seasons.
Real needed a stoppage time equaliser en route to winning the 2014 final, scored a late winner in the quarter-finals a year later and edged last season’s final on a penalty shootout.
However, there was far more a gulf between the sides this time round.
The home fans made sure to put Atletico in their place before kick-off with chants of “kings of Europe” and a “how does it feel” banner alongside a display of their 11 European Cups.
Real piled on the pain in the opening stages for the 4,000 visiting away fans and could have killed the tie in the opening half hour.
Atletico were handed a lucky escape on seven minutes when Jan Oblak parried Dani Carvajal’s effort at the end of a careering run and the Slovenian recovered to also turn behind Karim Benzema’s follow-up effort.
Clear-cut chances were far harder to come by after half- time as Atletico toiled to create, whilst Real sat on their lead waiting for the chance to counter-attack.
However, once again in ties between these two, Real got the slice of luck to go with their extra quality.
The ball rebounded up perfectly off the heels of Filipe Luis for Ronaldo to blast high past Oblak.
And Ronaldo completed his second hat-trick against Atletico this season four minutes from time when Lucas Vazquez’s cutback picked out the four-time World Player of the Year to slot home from close range.