Zidane Hails Cristiano Ronaldo for Selfless Gesture During Real Madrid's Emphatic Win
Zinedine Zidane hailed Cristiano Ronaldo's 'selfless' act during Real Madrid's 4-0 win over Deportivo Alaves.
Real struggled at points throughout the first half with Alaves providing plenty of attacking threat going forward in what was a spirited display from the visitors.
However, on the stroke of half time, Ronaldo put Madrid 1-0 up with his fourth goal in four games against Alaves. Despite going in at the break trailing, the visitors had plenty of encouragement heading into the second half.
Unfortunately for Alaves, their second half resistance lasted just 30 seconds as they were dispossessed by KarimBenzema straight from kick off before playing through Gareth Bale who neatly tucked the ball beyond the keeper to make it 2-0.
Ronaldo soon added a third for Madrid and then came the kind gesture. With just two minutes remaining Gareth Bale was brought down in the box and the referee awarded the penalty. However, Madrid's regular penalty taker who was also on a hat-trick decided to hand over the duty to Karim Benzema who after all his efforts had yet to get on the score sheet.
The Frenchman stepped up and duly delivered slotting the ball beyond the keeper to round off a very impressing 4-0 victory. After the game, Zindane hailed Ronaldo's kind gesture, telling ESPN: "I am happy for Cristiano's nice gesture with Karim. This shows he is a team player. It is something positive for me.
"Karim deserved this, to score a goal, as he had played a very good game. There is always pressure when you are Real Madrid's No. 9, he is used to that. I am happy for all of it -- another four goals, a clean sheet, all that we did."
Benzema's goal also mean the famous 'BBC' partnership up front all got on the score sheet in a game for the first time since April 2016. Zidane was also full of praise for the attacking trio and in particular Bale who completed the full 90 minutes for the first time since September in what had been an injury-plagued season.
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He added: "They played a very good game today -- also Lucas Vazquez, the four up front all played very well. I am happy for all four.
"Bale played a good game today, played the 90 minutes, in a position where he has not played recently. Gareth did very well in the 4-4-2. That went well for us. I wanted to see Gareth in this position, then we will see what happens in the coming games."
It was Madrid's sixth win in their last seven games, and Zidane admitted the impressive 3-1 win against PSG in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 was needed for the team. He added: "After our game against PSG, we have been doing much better, maybe we needed a game like that.
"Last year it was the same, we had some games when we scored in the last minute. At the moment we have the consistency we want in our play, our focus. That comes with recovering confidence, which is fundamental for a player. Now what we must do is keep going like this in the next game on Tuesday"
Real will be looking to continue their current rich vein of form when they face Espanyol on Tuesday in their next La Liga outing as they prepare for the second leg in the Champions League against PSG.
