Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti said that his superstar Cristiano Ronaldo was "extraordinarily motivated" at present after the 2014 Ballon d'Or favourite scored his latest hat-trick in Saturday evening's 3-0 La Liga win over Celta Vigo.
The game's first goal was a debatable penalty converted by Ronaldo after he himself went down very easily in the box under a challenge from Celta full-back Jonny. There was no doubt about the other two goals from the current Ballon D'Or holder -- a well-struck 15-yard volley and a neat far post finish completed the treble.
It was the Portugal captain's 23rd hat trick in La Liga, and took him to 200 goals in just 178 league games in Spain. When such figures were raised at the post-match news conference, the Blancos coach said he was delighted to have Ronaldo fully fit and supremely motivated just now.
"Of course having Cristiano is a great advantage for us," Ancelotti said. "He is playing very well just now, physically at his best, and he is extraordinarily motivated in this moment."
Real defender Sergio Ramos could not find the proper words to describe the state of Ronaldo's play.
"The numbers he is reaching are crazy," Ramos said. "The truth is it is a privilege for Real Madrid to have a player like him. You need to invent new words to define him. He is breaking all the records. Maybe he is in the best moment of his career."
The win was Madrid's 18th on the bounce in all competitions, equalling the Spanish football record set by Frank Rijkaard's Barcelona side during the 2005-06 campaign.
Ancelotti said he was most happy to have just gotten three more points against a Celta side which are difficult to play against.
"It was a good game as we played against a team who pressed a lot, are very aggressive, and play good football," he said. "So to beat Celta is very good, we played well, were solid at the back, without taking risks. It was not an easy game, I like how Celta play. But we played well. The run goes on -- I hope it keeps going for some more games."
The night's biggest worry for Madrid was the injury to his right-calf muscle which saw James Rodriguez leave the pitch during the second half. Ancelotti accepted that another injury in midfield was not good news, while saying he was happy with the cover from elsewhere in his squad.
"James has a calf injury, we will evaluate it in the coming days," he said. "Of course we are not happy with the James injury, but we will recover Isco and [Sami] Khedira. These are problems that sometimes come, with all the games we are playing. But we can replace people well. At the end we played 4-4-2 with Marcelo and [Dani] Carvajal [on wings]. Marcelo can play left side of midfield without a problem."
Ancelotti also had praise for midfielder Asier Illarramendi, who started his first game for two months, while admitting it had not been Toni Kroos' best performance for Madrid.
"Illarramendi played very well, in both phases of the game, attack and defence," he said. "He played with personality. It is true that Kroos with the ball misplaced some passes, which we are not used to seeing. But in defence he was very good."
The Italian however denied that he himself was running the risk of more injuries by overplaying his biggest stars.
"I do not see any physical dropping off in the team," Ancelotti said. "The first half we played with a lot of intensity, breaking with pace many times. In the second half we controlled the game well, worked well."