Madrid: Zinedine Zidane has praised Cristiano Ronaldo as the ultimate big-game player as Real Madrid close in on the La Liga title.
Ronaldo hit a brace in Real’s 4-1 win over Sevilla on Sunday as he took his tally to 401 goals with the Spanish capital giants.
“More than the goal itself, it’s what he’s done so far. In the decisive moments, he’s always there,” Zidane told his club’s website.
“He’s just got something, he’s different.”
The fight for the title will go down to the last day of the season with Real Madrid and Barcelona locked together on 87 points.
Madrid remain in the driving seat as the European champions have two games remaining to Barca’s one.
However, Barca remain on top thanks to their better head-to-head record, with Neymar scoring a hat-trick as they also won 4-1 in the Canary Islands, over Las Palmas.
Madrid visit Celta Vigo in their game in hand on Wednesday and then travel to Malaga, whilst Barca host Eibar on the final day next Sunday.
Zidane, who will face old playing side Juventus in the Champions League final on June 3 as Real chase a potential double, added: “The whole team has great character. When we are in a difficult situation we get out of it and play our way. Perhaps in scoring four goals we were too much for Sevilla, but we had a great second-half,” he said.
Star striker Ronaldo has scored 37 goals in all competitions this season and will look for more against a mid-table Celta side who have little bar pride to play for having been knocked out of the Europa League semi-finals by Manchester United last week.
And Zidane knows victory against Celta, and at Malaga on Sunday, will clinch a first title in five years for Real.
“It’s a very long road. Winning the league is not easy in Spain. Every day we get closer, continuing to pick up points, we’ve got two games to go and we’ll try to continue along this line,” Zidane said.
“Until the end, until the last minute, we can’t think about anything. We have to be focused on every game and every move. Every day we’re closer, but it’s more complicated. Anything can happen, but we always think positively and we’ll give everything until the end,” he added.
“Our daily job is to win the league. We haven’t won it for some time, but we’ve not won anything yet. Two games to go. We’ve done very well so far, but we have to finish the job and finishing it well is the most difficult bit. We have to stay focused.”
