A year ago, Cristiano Ronaldo finished the Champions League as the top scorer with 12 goals in 12 games. The Portuguese superstar looks ready to equal or even surpass his feat from last season after scoring three goals in Real Madrid's 6-1 win against Galatasaray on Tuesday.
The biggest news heading into the match was the return of goalie Iker Casillas. The Spanish international got off to a tremendous start with a save early in the game, but eventually found himself out of the match thanks to a collision with defenseman Sergio Ramos that left him with bruised ribs. Unfortunately for Casillas, his chance to show coach Carlo Ancelotti that he deserved the top spot was cut short in the process as he was unable to remain on the pitch and was replaced by Diego Lopez just 15 minutes in. The result? Lopez continued to make a huge case for himself as Madrid's top goalie as he made a number of game savers for the team when they needed them.
And they sure did need them, especially in the opening 45 as the Spanish side looked unimpressive and overwhelmed by the hosts' aggressive attacking style. Madrid had a hard time connecting plays from the defenders all the way to their top line throughout the game; most of the passing was sloppy and easily intercepted by Galatasaray. Fortunately the team came away with a 1-0 lead thanks to a surprising counterattack. Angel Di Maria fired a long aerial pass to Isco just outside the Galatasaray box. The Spaniard made a terrific move to control the ball and pulled away from his defender. He fired the shot past goalie Fernando Muslera for the lead.
Galatasaray was the superior side to start of the second half, but gave the ball away off a poor aerial clear and found themselves chasing Karim Benzema on a breakaway. The Real Madrid forward coolly fired the ball past Muslera for the 2-0 lead. The third goal came at the 63-minute mark as two Madrid attempts to keep the ball inbounds at the touchline by Di Maria and Isco eventually wound up in the back of the Galatasaray net thanks to Ronaldo. Just four minutes later, a Gareth Bale free kick for Madrid found the head of Ramos. The defender deflected the ball on net, but Muslera made a terrific reflex save to stop the shot. Unfortunately, he could not control the rebound and Ronaldo was all too happy to pounce on the loose ball and score his second goal of the contest. Inside the 80th minute, Ronaldo found himself streaking into the box on the left wing, with a lot of space. The superstar usually elects to shoot but in this case he slid the ball across to Benzema for his second goal of the match and a 5-0 Madrid lead.
Umut Bulut would get one back for Galatasaray at the 84th minute, but Ronaldo capped his hat trick with a tremendous effort on the left wing. He took a feed from Benzema and breezed through two defenders before firing the shot into the opposite side of the goal.
Madrid now faces Copenhagen in its following Champions League match.