Fans in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium may have had to wait, but in the end weren't disappointed by Cristiano Ronldo and Real Madrid's 7-1 victory against Celta Vigo.
It was a quiet first half for Los Blancos, with just a single goal netted by Pepe. After the break, Cristiano Ronaldo appeared on track for a stinker of a game and the crowd grew restless, issuing whistles and catcalls as Ronaldo made another poor pass.
As if responding to the taunts, Ronaldo took the ball at the 35-yard mark, turned, took two touches, and then fired it into the back of the net. Take that, impatient fans – and flying yellow Celta Vigo goalkeeper. You're going to have to jump higher than that to stop CR7's 31-year-old diesel rocket foot:
It turns out, Ronaldo's diesel rocket foot was just getting started. The Madrid man went on to score three more to make it four goals in 26 minutes of the second half. Or, as we like to call it, goal-pocalypse.
There was this 25-yard free kick that the Celta Vigo goalkeeper let in like a foregone conclusion:
Then there was this cheeky toe-poke and celebration to make it 4-1 at the 64':
To top off his hat trick, Ronaldo's head – jealous of his rocket foot – got in on the action off a corner to make it 5-1:
Ronaldo's four goals bring him into first place in La Liga's Pichichi top scorer race with 27 goals on the season. Barcelona's Luis Suarez, the former front runner, now sits in second with 25, while Messi sits in third with 19 on the season.
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These four goals put Cristiano Ronaldo at 252 career goals in La Liga in 228 appearances, which brings him into second place behind (surprise) only Lionel Messi as La Liga's all-time leading scorer. Ronaldo has a way to go to earn top honors here, though, as Messi sits at 305 in 337 appearances. Which really makes us wonder what he was doing in those 32 games where he didn't score. Come on man, step up your game.
Ronaldo scored his 500th career goal in all competitions back in September (you can watch it here) and has said he wants to score 500 more in his career. Which is a little like us saying we want three more slices of cake at a 5-year-old's birthday party. Surprising to everyone, slightly obnoxious, but entirely possible.
