Cristiano Ronaldo continued to silence his doubters with yet another man of the match display on Tuesday night, with a hat-trick that saved Real Madrid's season and sent them through to the semi-finals of the Champions League.
Some critics have voiced the opinion of late that Ronaldo is fading, now the wrong side of 30 and while Lionel Messi continues to shine on the Catalan coast, flanked by the irrepressible Luis Suarez and sure-fire future Ballon d'Or winner Neymar.
But Ronaldo once again hit back in the best possible way, single-handedly scoring all three goals that his team needed to overturn a first leg 2-0 deficit to Wolfsburg.
He now has 12 goals in his last nine appearances - as well as four assists - taking his tally for the season to 46 goals and 15 assists in 42 appearances in La Liga and the Champions League. He is the top scorer in both competitions; at least four clear of any rival on either front.
Tuesday's hat-trick was his 37th in seven years at Real Madrid and his fifth in the Champions League. Of those, he has gone on to score a fourth goal five times, and has scored five goals in a game on two occasions. He now has 359 goals in all competitions in Real colours.
Usually, his approach is to shoot on sight, and he usually ends up scoring with one of those attempts - he has had some 1690 shot in his 317 league and Champions League appearances for Real Madrid.
Against Roma in the second leg of the previous round of the Champions League, he had 14 shots and ended up scoring one, but against Wolfsburg he had just five attempts - two of which were blocked - and scored with all three of those with which he avoided a defender. One criticism is that he is wasteful and often wayward in his shooting, but even that could not be levelled against him this week.
It was a rather uncharacteristically lethal performance in front of goal from the Portuguese star at a crucial time, and one that enhanced his lead as the most prolific goal-scorer in Champions League history.
Not so long ago he and Messi were neck-and-neck in the race to become the top scorer in Europe's most celebrated competition, but a fifth successive season with double figures in Europe has seen Ronaldo move clear. He is the first player ever to hit 15 or more goals in two separate Champions League campaigns.
65 of his Real Madrid goals have come from the penalty spot; 29 have been from direct free-kicks. 242 have been right-footed, while he has scored 62 left-footed shots and 54 headers (as well as one with 'another' body part).
Around 57 per cent of his goals have come away from the Bernabeu - and away from the pressure the home crowd bring - while Sevilla are his favourite opponents, having scored 22 times against them. Impressively, Barcelona and Atletico rank fourth and fifth for Ronaldo in terms of who he scores against most frequently.
As he showed on Tuesday night when his team so needed him, Ronaldo comes up with the goods on the biggest stage
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