The better Ronaldo is, the better Madrid will be – Vazquez lauds four-goal hero

Lucas Vazquez hailed influential four-goal hero Cristiano Ronaldo following Real Madrid's 6-3 win over Girona in LaLiga.

Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo continued his red-hot form in 2018, scoring four goals as Madrid overcame Girona in a nine-goal thriller on Sunday.

It was Ronaldo's 50th career hat-trick as the Madrid star – who only scored four LaLiga goals prior to the new year but now has 22 in the league behind Lionel Messi's 25 – took his tally to 21 goals in his past 11 matches across all competitions.

"The better Cristiano Ronaldo is, the better Real Madrid will be," Vazquez said.

"Cristiano is playing at a spectacular level and it shows every day.

"If he continues like this, then he'll be close to Messi [in the Pichichi race]."

Madrid team-mate Nacho Fernandez added: "Cristiano is unreal. Once again this season he's proving that he's the world's best.

"He was suspended at the start of the campaign, then he wasn't putting his chances away and that was odd for him, the fact that he wasn't scoring. He's now helping the team and that's really positive for us."

As for midfielder Mateo Kovacic, he said: "We're not surprised by what Cristiano does, he scores goals every single day.

"He has to be congratulated on it but he's not the only one, because we all had great games.

"I'm thrilled for him but the most important thing is that the team wins and it doesn't matter who gets the goals."