Cristiano Ronaldo hit a stunning hat-trick this week to book his place in yet another final.
Teams, players and managers have been trying to stop him for years with varying degrees of success.
Here, Sportsmail spoke to those tasked with trying to contain Ronaldo’s unrivalled brilliance.
Cristiano Ronaldo hit a stunning hat-trick this week to book his place in yet another final
Bolton defender Nicky Hunt made his debut for Sam Allardyce as a 19-year-old full back on the opening day of the 2003-04 season.
The opponents were Manchester United at Old Trafford and the score was 1-0 to the home side when another teenager, Cristiano Ronaldo, came off the bench to make his debut. For Hunt, alarm bells rang quickly.
‘I remember boarding the team bus and I was mostly thinking about my own debut nerves. But then Ronaldo came on for Nicky Butt and he was up against me. United scored three more inside 20 minutes and he won a penalty and assisted another goal.
‘I put a hard tackle in within 25 seconds of him coming on and another two minutes later. He just got up. His attitude was sink or swim and he is a Michael Phelps-level swimmer. He did these lightning quick step-overs. Totally frightening. You don’t have time to adjust your feet. It was like a kid in the playground doing tricks and copying their idols.
‘I remember the dressing room afterwards. Big Sam came in and he and his assistant Phil Brown shook my hand and said, “We’ve got a player on our hands there”. We were all talking about him on the bus on the way home.’
Ronaldo came off the bench to make his debut in the 2003-04 season against Bolton
Birkir Mar Saevarsson was part of the Iceland defence on the day his country secured a famous draw against Portugal at the start of Euro 2016.
‘We rarely adopt a strategy for individuals but we make exceptions for extraordinary talents such as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. In one-on-one situations it can be very scary. But don’t be star struck. I thought about him in the same way as any Icelandic player in our national league. If he goes past me, it had to be on the outside towards the corner flag.
‘We limited those scenarios. As soon as he received the ball, the winger and the central midfielder would close in on him to create a 3 v 1 situation.
‘Top players hate playing against us. He scored once in three games against Iceland and that was a free-kick. At Euro 2016, we sensed his frustration and he didn’t score. He couldn’t find his rhythm. He got very few chances. You see the body language and the effort become less and less. I think he said something to some of our players.
‘It’s important to limit the service. Iceland create a beehive when we do not have the ball. We work our asses off and give less space to the stars than any other team. That’s what you have to do to even have a chance of stopping him.’
One hard tackle and he was gone!Ashley Cole enjoyed many battles for club and country against Ronaldo and proved to be one of the Portuguese’s toughest opponents.
When asked repeatedly during his career
