Champions League: Hat-trick hero

Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo is tackled by Wolfsburg’s Naldo in their Champions League quarter-final second leg match at Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on Tuesday. (Photo: AP )

Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Real Madrid to a record sixth successive Champions League semi-final with a hat-trick as the Spanish giants overturned a 2-0 first leg deficit, beating Wolfsburg 3-0 on Tuesday.

Ronaldo struck twice in just over a minute to bring Madrid level in the tie inside 17 minutes. Yet, the 10-time winners were forced to wait until 13 minutes from time to find the winner when Ronaldo’s dipping free-kick escaped the clutches of Diego Benaglio to find the bottom corner.

Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane hailed his side’s collective effort, but reserved special praise for Ronaldo who became the first player to score three hat-tricks in the competition in one season. “He is showing what he is, which is the best player in the world,” said the Frenchman. “Cristiano needs the whole team, I want to speak about the team because they achieved this together.

“But he is special because not everyone is capable of scoring three goals.”

Madrid hadn’t overturned a first-leg deficit in the Champions League in eight attempts stretching back 14 years to when Zidane played for Los Blancos in a quarter-final win over Bayern Munich.

However, they roared back into the tie and were level as Ronaldo struck twice in 86 seconds.

Dani Carvajal replaced the much-criticised Danilo in Madrid’s only change from the first leg at right-back and the Spanish international’s deflected cross fell perfectly for Ronaldo to tap home the opener at the back post.

The two nearly combined for the second straight from the restart as another dangerous Carvajal effort was just cut out before Ronaldo could head home.

However, there was no stopping the three-time World Player of the Year from the resulting corner as his header found the bottom corner of the net.

Man City reach last four Manchester City reached the semi-finals for the first time after Kevin De Bruyne’s fine 76th-minute goal earned them a 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain.

A week on from their 2-2 draw in the French capital, City saw Sergio Aguero squander a first-half penalty after he had been felled by PSG goalkeeper Kevin Trapp, but De Bruyne’s late strike settled the Etihad Stadium nerves and completed a 3-2 aggregate success. “It’s a very great achievement for the club, not only to be in the best four teams of Europe, but also in the style of play that we never change,” said Pellegrini.

But it was a bitterly disappointing evening for PSG coach Laurent Blanc, who lost Thiago Motta to injury and has now seen his team eliminated in the quarter-finals four seasons in a row.