Marseille were supposed to keep their goal lines clean or win by a four goal margin to qualify for the last sixteen of the UEFA Champions League.

Instead, they succumbed to Cristiano Ronaldo’s unstoppable force and performance which fired Real Madrid safely into the next stage of the tournament.

Cristiano Ronaldo was in the headlines last weekend for three reasons: for failing to convert his penalty kick, for not celebrating with the rest of his mates after Benzema had scored on the rebound, and for picking up a red card with two minutes of normal time remaining.

This morning, the Portuguese superstar is in the headlines for nothing else but putting up a brilliant performance in the last match-day of the Champions League when Real Madrid travelled to France to face Marseille.

On his return to 90 minutes of European football, Cristiano Ronaldo excited the public and irritated anti-Ronaldo supporters with nice flicks, tricks, turns, and especially with two great goals worthy of being watched over and over again.

Real Madrid kicked off Tuesday evening’s game knowing that a point will be enough to qualify. However, Los Blancos were always determined to improve on their last performance and defeat Marseille in order to finish as Group C leaders regardless of AC Milan’s result in the other match of the night.

Fortunately enough for the visitors, Cristiano Ronaldo got them onto a flying start as he scored in the opening five minutes.

There was always a chance for Cristiano Ronaldo to score from 30 yards out after Real Madrid were awarded a free-kick. However, few might have predicted that the ball from his shot would have got inside the net.

Defying all those in the crowd that booed him during the process, Cristiano Ronaldo wonderfully drove the ball past Marseille’s wall and goalkeeper to offer Real Madrid an early lead.

Six minutes later, Marseille equalized at the other end of the field with a controversial goal suspiciously guilty of being offside in the buildup.

Raul Albiol restored the visitors’ lead on the hour mark but drama was soon injected in the game when Mamadou Niang was brought down in the area by Iker Casillas.

With the score line set at 2-1 for Los Blancos, it meant that Marseille had to find five goals in less than 25 minutes before they could qualify into the last sixteen of the UEFA Champions League.

Certainly, some fans were still hoping for a miracle to happen, but when Lucho blasted his effort from the penalty spot against the crossbar, every dream faded away for the French.

To add to their misery, Cristiano Ronaldo rounded up the score line with a nice goal on 80 minutes that silenced the home crowd. (Watch Real Madrid’s third goal and other related highlights in the Video Gallery)

The onside number 9 received an excellent pass from substitute Karim Benzema but had to use some extra pace to reach the ball. In his run, Cristiano Ronaldo was tackled and brought down by the legs of both Marseille’s goalkeeper Steve Mandada and a defender.

He rolled down in his fall but quickly got back up to slaughter the ball in the empty net and complete his double on the night.

In four appearances in the Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo has now found the net six times and he is currently the top scorer of the tournament.

Cristiano Ronaldo tops the UEFA Champions League goal scoring charts ahead of his Manchester United number 7 shirt successor Michael Owen who has four goals in all.

CSKA Moscow’s Milos Krasic and Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzeko are also on four goals while Chelsea’s Didier Drogba and Fiorentina’s Adrian Mutu have both scored three goals in the tournament.