Ronaldo's wizardry tears apart teams and records

Look closer at the pictures of Cristiano Ronaldo's goal celebration at Anfield and you glimpse an astonishing sight. No, not his knee-slide, choreographed perfectly for the lenses around the corner flag, but the expressions on the faces of the Liverpool fans around him.

All of them, to a man, conveying a stunned blankness, with nary a flicker of opprobrium. Only a player on the path to historic greatness can be granted such reverence.

Perhaps Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent, was not exaggerating recently when he divulged that the Portuguese phenomenon's release clause at Real Madrid commanded a à1-billion fee, and that the world would not witness a player of his ilk for another 500 years. For Ronaldo is doing what all who savoured last season's feats - 17 goals in the Champions League and a jaw-dropping 51 from 47 in total - had assumed was inconceivable: he is getting even better.

Already Raúl must prepare to cede distinction as the Champions League's top scorer, with 71 goals, to his irrepressible pursuer. Ronaldo already has 10 from this campaign alone, and we are only two-thirds through the group phase. His 70 overall could quite plausibly become 80 should Real win their 11th European Cup next May.

As he left the field with 20 minutes remaining he was saluted by Liverpool supporters with a rare gusto. A former Manchester United player, lavished with applause? It is worth capturing the moment and packaging it inside a time capsule.

After all, Liverpool have a meagre 17 goals to show for their entire campaign so far. Ronaldo, on his own, has 20.

Mario Balotelli versus CR7: why was it dressed up as even a contest? The gulf in talent made the contrast painful to observe: the carthorse versus the wonder horse. The only category where they are remotely comparable is in shots at goal.

Ronaldo said last month, in an interview in Madrid, that he would strive to eclipse all his records this season. Then, given that he was still struggling to shake off the effects of a troublesome knee injury, the quest sounded outlandish. On the basis of the past four weeks it is eminently achievable.

A hat-trick at Deportivo, four against Elche, another three to help humiliate Athletic Bilbao, two at Levante: he is carving an unprecedented swathe through Spain, a one-man wrecking ball administering destruction with uncommon elegance.

No wonder he looks so unruffled about the supposed pressure of overhauling Raúl's Champions League landmark. He could, as he acknowledged after his Liverpool masterclass, always do so in the next game.

Ronaldo, as he demonstrated throughout his career, is never so content or so potent as when he feels loved.

There are so many ways of articulating Ronaldo's global supremacy, from last season's Ballon d'Or award to the fact that he has now scored in a remarkable 20 different cities in the Champions League.

Indeed, we might come to regard that Ballon d'Or last year as a watershed.

In another generation he could have snaffled such an accolade much sooner, without a certain Lionel Messi intervening. At 29, finally rid of the burden of wanting to win the individual award that mattered to him most, he looks like a man making up for lost time.