Karim Benzema hailed teammate Cristiano Ronaldo as a "phenomenon''
after the Portuguese struck five goals in Real Madrid's 9-1 mauling of
Granada.
It was the first time in his career that Ronaldo has
scored five goals in a single match and saw him become only the third
player to reach the 300-goal mark for Madrid, a tally achieved in only
287 appearances.
On Sunday, Benzema said on his club's website:
"Cristiano is a phenomenon, he is always looking for goals and ways to
help the team. He deserves everything he has achieved.''
Benzema also scored twice after Gareth Bale had opening the scoring
as Madrid's much-vaunted 'BBC' strikeforce combined to score eight of
their side's nine goals, with the other coming from a Diego Mainz own
goal.
The Frenchman added: "Him (Ronaldo), Bale and me, we're in
good form, like always. We're helping the team and sometimes we score
and other times we don't, but we're in good shape to continue like that
until the end of the season.''
Ronaldo, meanwhile, was quick to
highlight the role his teammates played in his five-goal haul as he
inched closer to becoming the club's all-time record scorer.
Raul
currently leads the way with 323 goals from 741 appearances while
Alfredo di Stefano is second with 308 goals from 396 matches.
Ronaldo wrote on Twitter: "Happy to have scored 5 goals with this excelent team work. Thank you for all your support.''
