The Real Madrid star was tops in front of goal for the 2016-17 competition after his crucial double saw off Juventus in the final
Cristiano Ronaldo has beaten Lionel Messi to the Champions league top scorer award after netting twice in the final against Juventus.
Madrid beat Juve 4-1 in Cardiff on Saturday, the Portugal international getting his side’s opener after 20 minutes and later scoring their third after 64.
Ronalldo hits 600th career goal
That means Ronaldo finishes the tournament on 12 goals, one clear of Messi after the Barcelona forward did not play since the quarter-finals, when his side lost to Juve.
Ronaldo has now either won or shared the award for five consecutive seasons – a record – and has six overall top scorer triumphs.
1 – @cristiano has now scored at least twice as many CL goals as any other player in the QF's (20), semi-finals (13) and finals (4). Giant. pic.twitter.com/FCVuatToJy
— OptaJohan (@OptaJohan) June 3, 2017
Messi is one behind on five wins. He was outright winner for four straight years from 2009-2012, before sharing the accolade in 2014-15 with Ronaldo and Barca team-mate Neymar, when they all struck 10 times in that campaign.
UEFA Champions League Final: Cristiano Ronaldo Takes Real Madrid To 4-1 Win Over Juventus
Ronaldo – who then managed 16 goals last term, one off his own competition record – pulled ten clear of the Argentinian but Messi’s hat-tricks against Celtic and Manchester City this season closed the gap before losing ground in the knockout phase. Ronaldo, whose subsequent double at Bayern München made him the first player to score 100 times in UEFA club competition, now leads 105-94; in overall UEFA club competition goals it is 108-97 in his favour.
Even Messi and Ronaldo’s UEFA Champions League strikes since they first found the net at this level and picked out some noteworthy stats amid all the numbers.
- Messi has only been on the losing side three times when he has scored
- Ronaldo has netted twice or more on 29 different occasions
- They are level 7-7 in hat-tricks
- Ronaldo did not score until his 30th game in the competition
- Ronaldo had notched in both round of 16 legs five seasons running until 2016/17
- Ronaldo is the first player to 50 knockout goals
- Ronaldo is the only player to score in three UEFA Champions League finals
- Both have nine goals against one club: Ronaldo v Bayern München and Messi v Arsenal
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