Cristiano Ronaldo told Patrice Evra that Juventus would "smash" Atletico Madrid ahead of Tuesday's stunning Champions League victory in Turin.

The Portuguese superstar scored a record-equalling eighth Champions League hat-trick to lead Juve to a 3-0 win over Atletico, sending them to the quarter-finals courtesy of a 3-2 aggregate success.

        View this post on Instagram                   Behind the scenes... these are messages between me and @cristiano 5 days before the massive comeback!!! This just shows you the confidence, the anger, the determination from the best player in the world 🌎 we should thank cricri mummy and daddy and of course god 🙏🏼for giving to us that nice man and unbelievable player. Every big occasion with big pressure my brother always proves he is the man !!! Soo please don’t be jealous I just wanna share and if you don’t agree I can’t do anything for you ...enjoy your life but you have to recognise he is simply the best of the best and don’t try to tap the screen for his number 😂😂😂 #ilovethisgame #positive4evra @juventus #finoalafine #world #bestplayer A post shared by Patrice Evra (@patrice.evra) on Mar 14, 2019 at 5:12am PDT

Evra – who played with Ronaldo at Manchester United between 2006 and 2009 – took to Instagram to reveal a WhatsApp conversation between the pair that shows the Juve forward was in confident mood five days ahead of the clash.

RONALDO: THAT'S WHY JUVE BROUGHT ME IN

Having played for Juve for three seasons until 2017, Evra told the 34-year-old he was counting on him to overturn the deficit from the first leg and Ronaldo responded by stating that his side would have no problems going through.

Alongside the screenshot of the conversation, Evra wrote: "Every big occasion with big pressure my brother always proves he is the man!!!

SIMEONE NOT BOTHERED BY RONALDO'S GOAL CELEBRATION

"This just shows you the confidence, the anger, the determination from the best player in the world."