Shares in Juventus jumped by 30 per cent on Wednesday after a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick catapulted the Italian football club into the quarter finals of the Champions League.

The Bianconeri were staring at a last 16 exit at the hands of Atletico Madrid ahead of Tuesday night’s home leg, having fallen to a 2-0 defeat in the Spanish capital three weeks ago.

But the Portuguese superstar and his teammates stepped up when coach Max Allegri needed them most, and produced a remarkable comeback to stun Diego Simeone’s men.

Ronaldo opened the scoring with a terrific first-half header and levelled the aggregate score four minutes into the second half.

Atletico failed to register a single shot on target during the second leg and when Ronaldo fired home a penalty with four minutes remaining for his 52nd career hat-trick, the Spanish side’s race was run and Juve had booked a quarter-final spot.

The club’s share price rose as much as 30 per cent from a Tuesday close of €1.22 to a high of €1.59 in Milan in early Wednesday trading — boosting its market capitalisation by €373m to €1.6bn.

By lunchtime its shares had settled around €1.42, marking a 17 per cent gain on the previous close.

Qualification for the quarter-finals brings with it a €10.5m windfall, according to Uefa, the governing body for European football. This comes on top of the €9.5m the club had already pocketed for its round of 16 appearances.

Juve will advance to the quarter-finals of the competition, joining Amsterdam’s Ajax, Portugal’s Porto and English clubs Manchester United, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur. Spain’s Barcelona will face French club Lyon and Germany’s Bayern Munich will take on England’s Liverpool on Wednesday night for the final two spots.

A place in the semi-finals brings with it a €12m payout, while an appearance in the final pays a further €15m. The winner of the Champions League will bank another €4m.

The club made waves last month when it tapped international bond markets for the first time, raising €175m of five-year debt at a 3.5 per cent yield, after paying €100m to sign Ronaldo last year.

Read more at https://thesportsbay.com/26655-how-cristiano-ronaldo-hat-trick-sent-juventus-shares-soaring.html

Messi 44 Hat-trick with Barca in 15year's
Ronaldo 44 Hat-trick with Madrid in 9year's
Pls who's better?

This guy called C Ronaldo isn't Human at all. His performance on Tuesday is astonishing and superb. Even though am a staunch Barca fan and i like Messi so much. Am beginning to think this guy called Ronaldo might be better than Messi.