Ronaldo is from another galaxy, says Zidane

Zinedine Zidane showered Cristiano Ronaldo with praise following his match-winning performance in Real Madrid’s 2-1 triumph over Eibar, lauding him as being “from another galaxy”.

Ronaldo opened the scoring in the 34th minute with a fine finish after an inspirational Luka Modric pass, as the Croatian used the outsid
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e of his right foot to pick out the forward’s run.

Ivan Ramis equalised just after the break with a goal that seemed to have denied Madrid all three points.

But Ronaldo emphatically sent Dani Carvajal’s cross past Marko Dmitrovic six minutes from time, leaving Zidane relieved.

“For me, he’s from another galaxy,” Zidane said. “What he does is very positive; he knows he’s going to score.

“When he has two goals, he wants three. He’s a different, special player. Data speaks for itself.

“He’s very good. You have to value the rival team, too. We have not found our game very well, but Cristiano knows what he’s doing. In just a few occasions he can score many goals.”

Aside from Ronaldo, however, Zidane was impressed with few of his players.

 Air @Cristiano! The moment our Portuguese forward netted the winning goal at Ipurua this afternoon!#RMLiga | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/EAyS6mhRsU

— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) March 10, 2018

Gareth Bale and Isco were particularly ineffective at Ipurua and, while he acknowledged that, he was quick to insist they were not the only two, adding that Eibar were simply the better team.

“Well, like everyone,” Zidane replied when it was suggested Bale and Isco were disappointing.

“We were a little worse than usual as a whole, not just Isco and Bale. We did not find our game, we had many difficulties.

“Everyone – including Isco and Bale – fought, they have run a lot and it matters to me that, when things do not come off, you
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still have character and we had that.

“They [Eibar] have been better, clearly. They have played a great game, especially in the first half.

“We knew it was a complicated game. They are two points behind the European places. We knew that we were going to suffer. We had difficulties.”