Cristiano Ronaldo was taunted after Champions League defeat to favourite opponents Atletico Madrid but Man United star scored hat-trick for Juventus after promise to Patrice Evra and did Diego Simeone ‘cojones’ celebration

Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick when the world seems to be against him? We’ve seen that before…

Suffering one of his worst droughts in front of goal for a decade the Manchester United icon turned up against Tottenham and bagged a tremendous hat-trick in a 3-2 win.

Now, Diego Simeone will probably have had a sleepless night about facing him again.

Man United and Atletico Madrid meet in the Champions League on Tuesday in the second leg of their Champions League round of 16 game with the scores level at 1-1.

Ronaldo, though, boasts a stunning record against the Spanish outfit.

The Portuguese has more goal contributions against Atleti than against any other club in his career and Simeone will know more than most not to provoke a reaction from Ronaldo.

The manager learned the hard way what happens to those who antagonise the Champions League’s all-time record goalscorer.

To add insult to injury Ronaldo had suffered a nightmare return to Madrid after he was booed mercilessly by the fans inside the Wanda Metropolitano throughout.

Diego Godin’s goal even deflected off the five-time Ballon d’Or winner on its way into the net to leave Juventus’ European dream in tatters.

Far from taking the taunts lying down, Ronaldo held up five fingers – to signify his five Champions League titles –  in the mixed zone as he left the stadium before embarking on his revenge.

Before the return leg, the forward told friends and family that he would score a hat-trick against Atletico, reported Spanish publication Marca.

His former United teammate Patrice Evra also posted a screenshot of an exchange he had with Ronaldo in which he said: “Home we smash them.”

And ‘smash them’ is exactly what Ronaldo did as he bagged his eighth Champions League hat-trick to completely turn around the tie.

The Portugal captain scored two incredible headers before a 86th minute penalty send the Bianconeri through to the quarter finals.

Ronaldo then couldn’t resist rubbing salt in the wounds for Simeone by mimicking his celebration post-match.

The gesture cost him a £17,000 fine but Simeone did not have a problem with it.

“Cristiano Ronaldo is the best in the world, he can put in these performances on big nights,” he said.

“He will have seen how I did it at the Wanda Metropolitano and, like me, was trying to show his character.”

Ronaldo meanwhile declared: “This is why Juve brought me in, to help on magic nights like this.”

United signed CR7 for the same reasons and Ralph Rangnick will be hoping his talisman saved some of that magic for this game to help them into the Champions League quarter-finals…