CARDIFF, June 4: After another potent demonstration of Cristiano Ronaldo’s enduring scoring prowess, surely no Real Madrid fan can contemplate criticizing him now.

Particularly after the world player of the year ensured Madrid pulled off one of soccer’s hardest feats, becoming the first team to successfully defend their Champions League title.

The fans who irritated Ronaldo so much ahead of Saturday’s final due to their whistling were silenced in emphatic style with two goals in a 4-1 victory over Juventus that gave Madrid a record-extending 12th European crown.

“People don’t have words to criticize,” Ronaldo said, “because the numbers don’t lie.”

They certainly don’t after another incredible season, even at the age of 32.

“My age is just a number,” Ronaldo said. “I feel like a young boy.”

At the end of the 25th season of the Champions League, Ronaldo is the first player to score in the three of the competition’s finals. And having lifted the European Cup once with Manchester United, Ronaldo has done it three times in four seasons with Madrid.

It’s the latest piece of silverware in an incredible 12 months for the forward.

It began with Ronaldo winning his first title with Portugal at the European Championship. Then came the Club World Cup with Real Madrid and the end of a five-year Spanish title drought before new highs were reached in the Champions League.

His career goal tally in club and international soccer now stands at 600.

Ronaldo’s first strike at Millennium Stadium was canceled out by Mario Mandzukic’s exquisite 27th-minute hook shot. It was the only high point for Juventus on a night when the Italian champion was outclassed in its quest for a first European title in 21 years.

Madrid’s supremacy was clear in the second half.

After Casemiro put the Spanish champions back in front in the 61st, Ronaldo turned in the third at the near post inside three minutes, and Marco Asensio wrapped up the scoring in the 90th.

Juventus conceded more goals on the night than it had on the journey to the final, having let in only three in the previous three games.

“In the second half Real Madrid pushed the accelerator,” Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri said, “and we remained too static and sat back too long.”

Madrid’s attacking brilliance proved too hard for Juventus to contain, giving Zinedine Zidane his second Champions League title in 18 months of top-flight management.

“Zidane believes in us a lot,” Ronaldo said. “He knows that we are a very good team and that is why we proved it in the second half.”

Until now, no team since AC Milan in 1989 and 1990, when the cup was only a knockout competition, had won back-to-back titles.

Madrid had a lot to thank Keylor Navas for in the opening minutes. The goalkeeper blocked a header and strike from Gonzalo Higuain, and produced a one-handed save when Miralem Pjanic picked a gap through a crowd of defenders.

One of the first things Navas’ counterpart, Gianluigi Buffon, had to do was pick the ball out of his net.

It was the culmination of a counterattack of breathtaking speed launched by Luka Modric and Toni Kroos. Karim Benzema picked up possession and passed to Ronaldo. The world player of the year knocked the ball across to Dani Carvajal on the right flank before drifting into the penalty area to receive it back and beat Buffon.

But within seven minutes, Ronaldo was shaking his head with a scowl after seeing an equalizer of individual brilliance.

Leonardo Bonucci’s deep ball was brought down by Alex Sandro, who cut it back to Higuain in the penalty area. With his back to goal, Mandzukic received the chipped pass from Higuain and used his chest to control the ball before hooking it over his shoulder into the far top corner.

Mandzukic also scored the last time the final was held in Britain, when Bayern Munich beat Barcelona in 2013. But the magnificence evoked memories of another showpiece staged in the U.K. in 2002 when Zidane volleyed into the top corner in Glasgow to help Madrid beat Bayer Leverkusen.

This time, Zidane was a spectator on the Madrid sidelines, but enjoying it just as much.

Domination was verified after the break when Madrid went back in front — through Casemiro’s strike which deflected off Sami Khedira — and this time the lead was retained.

It owed much to Madrid controlling midfield, largely thanks to Modric, who set up Ronaldo’s second. The Croatian timed his cutback to perfection in the 64th to allow Ronaldo to ghost in between Leonardo Bonucci and Giorgio Chiellini and slot in at the near post.

Juve’s night took a turn for the worse when Juan Cuadrado was dismissed for a second booking in the 84th. And to compound their misery, Asensio beat Buffon again as the 39-year-old goalkeeper missed out on a first European title.

“(Madrid) showed their class and the attitude needed to play in this kind of game,” Buffon said after losing a third final.

MONACO, May 4: Gonzalo Higuain scored both goals as an imperious Juventus beat Monaco 2-0 in their Champions League semi-final first leg on Wednesday to take a huge step towards next month’s final in Cardiff.

Both of Higuain’s goals came from Dani Alves assists, with the Argentine hitman rounding off a breathtaking team move to open the scoring just before the half-hour mark and converting the second from close range after the break.

While the second leg in Turin next Tuesday will be no formality, Juventus have never lost a two-legged European tie to French opposition and so impressive were they at the Stade Louis II that it is hard to imagine Monaco recovering.

Higuain, who now has 31 goals this season, received applause from all around the ground as he came off to be replaced by Juan Cuadrado late on after a clinical display that showed just why Juve paid 90 million euros (USD 98m) to sign him from Napoli last year.

In contrast Monaco, having won their previous 13 matches at the Stade Louis II and been so thrilling going forward all campaign, could not find a way through the brilliant away defence.

They will now need something very special next week if they are to make it to a first Champions League final since 2004.

“Goals were not coming for me in this competition but I knew I just had to stay calm and keep working hard,” said Higuain after ending a seven-game run without scoring in the Champions League knockout stages.

“We also wanted another clean sheet and we are delighted with the result.”

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri raised eyebrows with his team selection as he ditched his favoured back four, bringing Andrea Barzagli into a three-man defence in an attempt to thwart Monaco’s prolific attack.

The tactic worked, although the absence of the marauding left-back Benjamin Mendy from the home side also played into their hands.

BRILLIANT BUFFON

slow start and teen sensation Kylian Mbappe was first to test Gianluigi Buffon with a header from Nabil Dirar’s ball that the veteran goalkeeper held easily.

In the 16th minute the same trio were involved again, Dirar surging down the right and delivering a teasing ball to the near post that Mbappe diverted towards goal, with Buffon saving superbly.

Buffon, playing his 149th European game at the age of 39, started his career before Mbappe was born. But he remains one of the world’s best and shortly after he was there to turn the ball behind after Radamel Falcao met another Dirar delivery with a terrific leap.

Juve are a slick side, sound defensively but with an awesome attacking arsenal of their own and it was they who opened the scoring on 29 minutes in stunning fashion.

Paulo Dybala was involved initially before Dani Alves, now nearly 34, surged into the box, holding off Kamil Glik and cutting the ball back for Higuain to sweep home.

Higuain bounded over the advertising hoardings and across the running track to celebrate with the away support, before Juve retreated to ensure they held their lead into the break.

Although Monaco had glimpses of goal after the restart, with Falcao firing straight at Buffon, they were also their own worst enemies.

When Thomas Lemar lost possession in his own half and went down hoping for a free-kick, referee Mateu Lahoz let play continue and Marchisio ran in on goal only to see Danijel Subasic save his shot.

But when Tiemoue Bakayoko was hustled off the ball by Dybala, Juventus seized their chance. Alves delivered a hanging ball from wide on the right and Higuain escaped the attentions of Glik to apply a first-time finish.

Buffon then intervened to stop Monaco getting a goal back, producing a majestic save in the last minute to tip over Valere Germain’s header from a Joao Moutinho free-kick. AFP

MADRID, May 3: There will come a day when he is unable to do it any longer, when the appeals to his team-mates at a pass gone astray will just be the grumblings of a footballer past his usefulness, but for the time being, Cristiano Ronaldo consistently and defiantly announces himself as the man for the big occasion.

His second goal had already killed the little hope Atletico Madrid had of rescuing this Champions League semi-final in the second leg in eight days’ time but the third, the hat-trick goal, turned it into something else altogether. This was another monument to the phenomenal goalscoring achievements of this footballer with his 103 goals in this competition and an unerring ability to be the right man in the right place at all the right times.

At 32, Ronaldo is already a reigning European champion for club and country and now, on track for the fourth Champions League title of his career. He has 47 career hat-tricks, 42 for Real and six this season although the numbers, staggering though they are, do not quite do justice to the occasion. This is a man who relentlessly puts himself at the centre of the story, year after year, game after game.