Cristiano Ronaldo's greatest UEFA Champions League season
Real Madrid and Cristiano Ronaldo's love affair with the Champions League is arguably the most iconic relationship in football.
Cristiano Ronaldo, the 5-time Ballon d'Or winner, is the highest goalscorer in the competition with 135 goals and has the most assists in the competition with 42. Meanwhile, Real Madrid have won the competition a record 13 times.
However, the 'Whites' wouldn't have been able to end their 12-year barren spell in the competition and win 'La Decima' in 2013/14 without contributions from "Mr. Champions League" himself, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo arguably had the greatest individual season the competition has ever seen in 2013/14. He had the most goals in a single season in the competition with 17 and another 5 assists in 11 games.
Cristiano Ronaldo's performances for Real Madrid in the 2013/14 Champions' League
"Real Madrid had easy opponents and Ronaldo was just stat-padding."
Real Madrid started in Group B of the competition alongside Italian giants Juventus, then record 19-time Turkish champions Galatasaray and Danish side FC Copenhagen.
Ronaldo missed the home game against Galatasaray on matchday 5 of the competition with a muscular strain, but still managed to finish the group stage with 9 goals and 2 assists in just 5 games.
Los Blancos then went on to meet FC Schalke 04 in the round-of-16 and beat the German side 9-2 over two legs. Unsurprisingly, the Portuguese talisman had 5 goal contributions over two legs.
Ronaldo's side then played Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals where he scored in the 1st leg to put his team 3-0 up. He was on the bench in the 2nd leg, getting some much deserved rest.
The Galacticos went on to play Bavarian giants Bayern Munchen in the semi-finals and comfortably beat them 5-0 on aggregate. Ronaldo scored a brace in the 2nd leg which included a brilliant free-kick that left Manuel Neuer absolutely stunned.
Real Madrid faced local rivals Atletico Madrid in the final, with Ronaldo scoring a penalty in the 120th min in Lisbon. Moments later, he set up Marcelo to put the icing on the cake.
'But Ronaldo just scores penalties'
To the unpleasant surprise of some haters, only 2 out of the 17 goals Ronaldo scored in the campaign were penalties. Furthermore, Ronaldo only went goalless in 1 game, having scored 14 in 8 consecutive games. Another record in the competition.
As Real Madrid conquered the ultimate continental competition and won the Champions League, Ronaldo went on to become the highest goalscorer and assist provider in the competition and deservedly won the UCL Player of the Season.
Real Madrid and Ronaldo would then win the competition again two years later under new manager Zinedine Zidane. They successfully defended their crown thrice to eventually complete the three-peat.
Ronaldo scored the winning penalty against Atletico Madrid in the 2016 final and a brace against Juventus in the 2017 final.
