Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 10y

Cristiano Ronaldo credits Real teammates for providing four-goal day

Cristiano Ronaldo was quick to praise his teammates after he continued his red-hot form with a four-goal haul in Madrid's 5-1 demolition of Elche in Tuesday's La Liga meeting at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

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Ronaldo has scored seven goals in the last four days, and 12 goals in eight games across all competitions so far in 2014-15, even after he missed a fortnight in late August to try and recover completely from persistent knee and thigh issues.

The Portugal captain has now also scored in every league game he has played in the last 12 months at the Bernabeu, netting 21 goals -- including six penalties -- over those 13 fixtures. He told Canal Plus after the game that such achievements were not easy, and he had his Madrid colleagues to thank for giving him opportunities.

"To score four goals is very difficult," Ronaldo said. "I thank my teammates for passing me the ball so I am able to score. I have done it two or three other times. It is about the team. Things are coming off for me at the moment, thanks to my teammates for helping me so much. The matchball is for my son."

Speaking at his postmatch news conference, Blancos coach Carlo Ancelotti hailed the performance of his number seven, while agreeing that the mini preseason in August had helped Ronaldo refind his best physical and mental condition.

"The rest he had worked well for him, he needed to do some specific work," Ancelotti said. "At this moment he is physically very good, and very motivated, and scoring a lot of goals."

Madrid have now scored 18 goals in three wins over eight days, after consecutive La Liga defeats to Real Sociedad and Atletico Madrid in their previous outings. Ancelotti denied that the turnaround was down to any tactical changes on his part, saying it was more to do with a change in attitude from his talented side.

"The team played well tonight, with more balance and consistency, controlling the play well," he said. "It is not about the system, but everyone working well. We have improved a lot in that way since the Atletico game, so it is easier to find that balance."

One change made was under-fire captain Iker Casillas being left out, with 10 million-euro summer signing Keylor Navas getting his first start. Ancelotti said that call had not been made to protect Casillas from Bernabeu whistlers, while saying he had not yet decided who would be in goal for Saturday's game at Villarreal.

"Navas played a secure game, he was relaxed," he said. "The defence did well together, Keylor too. He was not called upon to work too often, but when he did well when he was. We will see on Saturday who plays, we will have time to talk about that again."

The Italian coach, who also benched Karim Benzema and Luka Modric for this game, suggested he would make more changes as his team went through its current period of five fixtures in 15 days.

"In this moment rotation is important to have everyone motivated," he said. "We have a lot of games, another on Saturday. So it is normal to rotate a bit so that everyone is rested. Karim and Modric rested today, they will play on Saturday."

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