Cristiano Ronaldo, we were told, is on the wane and losing the attributes that allow him to play football better than almost all other footballers, past or present. Well, the Portugal and Real Madrid captain gave another rebuff to his detractors yesterday in his relentless pursuit of enduring greatness. And goals.

A brilliantly efficient hat-trick against city rivals Atletico, with Ronaldo outshining everyone else on the pitch, all but booked Real’s place in the Champions League final. Barring a shock comeback next week, the Merengues will be in the final in Cardiff and 90 minutes away from becoming the first team in the modern era to retain the world’s greatest club prize. 

It is impossible not to be awestruck by Ronaldo’s unremitting level of excellence, and it should come as no surprise that the Madeira-born superstar is busily making fools of those who doubt him. His whole career can be charted by his smashing of the naysayers’ myths. 

There was a time, not so long ago, when the appointment of a Portuguese manager at the Scottish Football institution that is Glasgow Rangers would have garnered a far greater level of interest in the Portuguese sports media – and indeed across Europe – than has been the case since Beja-born Pedro Caixinha stepped into the breach at Rangers’ Ibrox Stadium.

Times have changed, and then some. Caixinha’s appointment at Ibrox in March on a three-year deal was greeted with an outpouring of indifference in his home country for numerous reasons. Primary among these is that the Rangers of today are not the Rangers of yore.

Gone are the stellar names from the 1990s like Paul Gascoigne, Brian Laudrup and Ronald de Boer. Now the famous light blue jersey is filled with a squad comprised of journeymen, has-beens and never-will-bes.

This weekend was a highly successful one for the legion of Portuguese coaches abroad. Sérgio Conceição (Nantes), Marco Silva (Hull City), Carlos Carvalhal (Sheffield Wednesday), José Mourinho (Manchester United) and Leonardo Jardim (Monaco) all clocked up important victories.

Glasgow Rangers is the latest high-profile club to entrust their fortunes to a Portuguese manager, and PortuGOAL will be tracking Pedro Caixinha’s progress at the Scottish giants. On Sunday, the former União de Leiria and Nacional da Madeira coach faced his first big test since taking the job. Our Scottish football correspondent John Hunt reports on how it went from Hampden Park.

Portugal may not have any teams left in this year's Champions League, but a strong Portuguese presence made itself felt at the quarter-final stage of the world's greatest club competition.

On Tuesday night the irrepressible Cristiano Ronaldo scored yet another hat-trick in the competition to propel his Real Madrid side past Bayern Munich. A 4-2 win in the Spanish capital resulted in a 6-3 aggregate win, with the Portugal captain scoring five of his team's six goals in the tie, in so doing becoming the first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League.

On Wednesday it was Monaco, managed by Portuguese coach Leonardo Jardim, who took the plaudits as their spectacular run continued with a comprehensive 3-1 win over Borussia Dortmund to complete a 6-3 victory on aggregate. Portuguese left-back Raphael Guerreiro started for the German outfit, but it was his international team-mates Bernardo Silva and João Moutinho, also both lining up from the start, for Monaco, who left the pitch victorious.