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Football

12th Mar 2019

Cristiano Ronaldo ‘mocks Diego Simeone’ with gesture as Juventus beat Atletico

JOE

Death. Taxes. Cristiano Ronaldo scoring lots of goals in the Champions League knock-out stages.

A week on from watching his former teammates at Real Madrid crash out to Ajax, Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Juventus to a miraculous turnaround in their Champions League last 16 tie against Atletico Madrid.

Trailing 2-0 from the first leg in the Spanish capital, Ronaldo scored all three Juve goals in Turin on Tuesday night, enough for the Italian champions to progress with a 3-2 aggregate victory.

Understandably, most camera lenses present at the stadium were trained on the 34-year-old in the seconds after full-time, capturing his reaction to the victory.

As they did, some of those watching at home seemed to think he’d used the opportunity to mock Atleti boss Diego Simeone for his reaction to one of his side’s goals in the first leg.

Footage of the Argentine grabbing his crotch in celebration was widely circulated in the days after the game at the Wanda Metropolitano last month – a gesture some felt Ronaldo was poking fun of in the footage below.

The win for Juventus keeps alive Ronaldo’s hopes of winning the Champions League for the fourth consecutive season, having won it with Real Madrid for the last three years on the run. He also won it in 2014, when they defeated Atleti in Lisbon, as well as winning the competition in his penultimate season as a Manchester United player in 2008.