That sequence was never going to last, was it? Sure enough, just when his team needed him, Ronaldo did what Ronaldo does best, ending an 11-hour drought, with two strikes in 29 minutes that have put 10-man Bayern Munich on the brink of elimination. In doing so he became the first man to score 100 times in European competition. Bayern, really, should be out and it was only down to the brilliance of Manuel Neuer that they will travel to Madrid with a glimmer of hope. The best goalkeeper in the world did all he could to stop Zinedine Zidane's men running riot but his best was not thwart Ronaldo. The hosts were shattered.
In the moments before kick-off, it had all been so different. As the teams began to line up, there was a warm embrace between the master and his apprentice, Carlo Ancelotti and Zidane shared a joke to defuse the tension ahead of the undisputed tie of the round.
The Champions League is an obsession for both clubs. Real Madrid's appetite for an extraordinary 12th success is insatiable, while Bayern's desire to claim a sixth title borders on the fanatical. It is why this collision was the blockbuster of the last eight.
Not surprisingly, the early exchanges mirrored the opening rounds of a heavyweight title fight. They jabbed and they jousted, they danced around sizing each other up; both had total conviction in their ability to win, neither wanted to be on the end of the first blow.
As it was, Madrid found their stride quickest. In the first 15 minutes, it was they who played the most convincing football and had it not been for a stunning save from Manuel Neuer, the lead would have been theirs in the 15th minute.
Karim Benzema had almost begun to wheel away in celebration when he got his head to Toni Kroos' in-swinging cross but, somehow, Neuer elongated his right arm and flung himself acrobatically to fingertip the attempt onto the bar. Nobody could quite believe Neuer had kept his goal intact – there was another save from Cristiano Ronaldo just before the interval that was of similar quality – but his first action provided the jolt that Bayern required to burst into life.
Finally they started to play and on 25 minutes Ancelotti's men had the lead. Vidal had initially forced a corner with a thumping volley that Gareth Bale headed away but from Thiago Alcantara's ensuing set play, Vidal escaped his marker, Nacho, and planted a bullet header past Keylor Navas.
If only Vidal had been so assured in first half injury time when Bayern were gifted a soft penalty after Dani Carvajal was adjudged to have handled; all that was required was some poise but the Chilean got everything wrong and thrashed his spot kick horribly over the bar.
It was a miss to change the game. Madrid returned reinvigorated that they had been let off the hook and, within 90 seconds, parity had been restored with a glorious goal; Casemiro drilled a pass out to Carvajal, the right back fizzed a first time cross into the area and Ronaldo did the rest.
Bayern boss Carlo Ancelotti says all to play for in second leg
What a difference the equaliser made. Suddenly black shirts swarmed forward and the sense of dread rose within the stadium. Only another superlative stop from Neuer, flinging himself to repel Bale's point blank header, kept their heads above water.
Yet there was only so much he could do and when Javi Martinez was expelled for two bookings, Real had the scent of blood. In such circumstances, nobody is more ruthless than Ronaldo and in the 76th minute, he pounced to convert Marco Asensio's cross.
On so many levels, this was huge. It was his 97th strike in the Champions League, his 100th in European football but, critically, it put Bayern on the brink. The German would have been over the edge had Sergio Ramos not had an injury time header chalked off for offside.
Zidane need not fear. After this, the last four surely beckons.
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