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Cape Town - Real
Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane praised Cristiano Ronaldo after his latest
Champions League heroics on Tuesday night, but also congratulated his
‘brilliant’ team.
Ronaldo bagged a hat-trick, a record equalling seventh in the competition, as Madrid thrashed their cross-city rival Atletico Madrid 3-0 in the semi-final first leg.
"Cristiano is a goalscorer. He's unique," said Zidane after the match, before going onto laud the rest of the team.
"All the players were brilliant. One player comes off and another one comes on and plays a great game.
"We knew what we had to do from the off and we played the game we wanted to."
Zidane also singled out play-maker Isco for special praise, the Spanish international continuing his recent excellent form.
"Isco played as a number 10 and was fantastic. We then had width with [Lucas] Vazquez and [Marco] Asensio when they came on," said Zidane.
"In a defensive sense we were brilliant too. I'm very happy with everyone's work.
"When you look at the game and the scoreline it means we played a great game. We still have the second leg. We will have to work hard and fight for it. We will suffer at their place for sure.
"We're content, very happy and we can enjoy it, but we still have a long way to go in the Champions League and La Liga.
"I don't think that we're euphoric and imagining ourselves in the final. There's no such thing as an easy game and we need to play a perfect game at their place in order to go through."
"I'm lucky to have these players. We try to play our football and enjoy ourselves. It works because we have great players with great attitudes,” he added.
