5 milestones Cristiano Ronaldo reached against Espanyol

When the Portuguese star made the move from Old Trafford to Real Madrid after 6 illustrious years with Manchester United, he had already won a number of accolades. But his individual achievements since the move have gone above and beyond everyone’s imagination.The price tag was a bit much, but for Cristiano Ronaldo, but excessive as it was, it was a bargain in hindsight for the success the 30-year-old has brought to Madrid with him. Ronaldo has established himself as a consistent goalscorer for Los Blancos since 2009 amassing a whopping 320 goals in all competitions for the Spanish side.Only in 2 seasons out of 6 so far has Ronaldo failed to breach the 50 goal mark in a season for Real and on in those 2 seasons he scored 35 and 47 goals, which themselves are no small feat for a winger. And in his seventh season at the club, Ronaldo got off to a tame start by his standards, failing to make a mark in terms of goals in his first 2 league games.However, the former Manchester United player was on full throttle against Espanyol in the Whites’ third league fixture as he put 5 goals past their hapless keeper and also chipped in with one assist, ensuring that he directly had a part to play in all the goals.If Ronaldo continues at the same pace, he could obliterate some major records this season. In fact, he reached 5 milestones in this game alone, here they are.

#1 First player to score 5 goals twice for Real Madrid

Cristiano Ronaldo smashed 5 past Espanyol playing away from home, a tally that he has matched only once before, which he did earlier this calendar year against Granada when Real Madrid gave them a 9-1 thrashing at home. Incidentally, the same fixture is the next one on Los Meringues league calendar, perhaps the timing of Ronaldo’s rout a bit ominous for both sides.

Achieving the feat on two separate occasions has give the Portuguese captain the rare honour of becoming the first player to score 5 goals twice for the club. While it is not surprising that it was Ronaldo who created this seemingly unachievable record, to do it within the same year makes it even more impressive.

The fact that no player in Real Madrid’s history of illustrious strikers has made this sort of a record before is a testament to the absolute dominance the former Sporting winger has in the goalscoring department at Madrid. It is a milestone even the Pichichi holder will be proud of.

#2 Most hat-tricks in La Liga

Both Ronaldo and Messi are consistently making hattricks look like an every day occurrence as they continue to obliterate opponents who seem to have no answer to the duo playing for the bitter Spanish rivals. In scoring his first 5 goals of the season to become La Liga's top scorer so far in 3 games, Ronaldo has now scored 28 hattricks in the league, the highest anyone has ever achieved in La Liga history.

It brings his overall tally for Real Madrid up to 32 times that he’s hit a triad of goals. It’s not a feat many can boast as the Portuguese has a hattrick he scored at Manchester United and few for his national side that could be added to his list.

In front of goal, the Portuguese frontman is an animal more lethal than anyone else as is evident from the fact that he scored all of his 5 goals from within the penalty area against Espanyol.

#3 Ronaldo\'s fastest ever hat-trick

Only once before in his stay at Real Madrid has Cristiano Ronaldo failed to score in the first three games for Real Madrid. A statistic, he was unlikely to repeat as he took Espanyol by storm. The Real winger who scored three goals the last time he played at Estadi Cornellà-El Prat replicated his tally from that day but this time within 20 minutes as the visitors snatched the initiative in the early stages.

Ronaldo got his first La Liga goal of the season as early as the 7th minute when a ball from deep played by Luka Modric beat everyone to find the run of the Real Madrid forward who wasn’t about to miss his chance. He would double his tally only 10 minutes later when Gareth Bale was brought down in the box and it was The Portuguese who stepped up to dispatch the penalty.

It was the Welshman again who set up his fellow winger for the hat trick goal in the 20th minute as he played a flawless cross into the box for Ronaldo to finish at the far post. It took 13 minutes from his first goal to his third for Ronaldo to register his trio of goals.

His other two goals would come in the second half, but the imperious former Manchester United player’s 20 minute hat trick was the fastest he has ever scored one in his career and he also registered the fastest 3 goals by a Real Madrid player since 1960.

#4 First ever tally of 5 goals + 1 assist

As earlier mentioned, Ronaldo has scored 5 goals for the second time in his career and became the first player to do so twice for Real Madrid in the process. Another milestone it helped him reach was the statistic of scoring 5 and assisting 1, the likes of which he’s never achieved before.

It marks a career high for the boy from Madeira to be involved in all six goals. The Real striker was in full flow as he had 7 shots on target 5 of which he made count while creating 3 chances including an assist for Karim Benzema’s goal. Having scored 28 hat-tricks for Real Madrid

Scoring 3 goals is hard enough for most players but the Portugal national captain has managed to surpass most barriers and he can add this one to that list right at the top.

#5 Top league goalscorer for Real Madrid

This one, we almost knew when the season began. The quality that Ronaldo boasts of, it would have been highly unlikely that he would not reach the mark this season and he did so in style as he ended the night with 230 goals for Real Madrid in the league and becoming their highest league goalscorer jumping ahead of Raul Gonzalez who hit the back of the net 228 times for Los Blancos.

The incredible bit of the whole record breaking feat is that Ronaldo amassed his goals over only 203 games at the rate of more than a goal a game while Raul took 550 games to reach his mark. Ronaldo’s goalscoring has put him in an incredible position as the Spaniard’s record for most goals scored in all competitions for Real is now in Ronaldo’s sights as his tally of 320 goals for the club is only 3 short of the club legend’s goals.

While it may be a safe bet to say that Ronaldo will be the top scorer in all competitions for the Madrid giants soon, the question to be asked is when and how the Portuguese maestro will achieve the incredible feat.