Saturday 29 October 2016 19:45, UK
Cristiano Ronaldo responded to suggestions he should be dropped by Zinedine Zidane with a hat-trick to keep Real Madrid at the top of La Liga.
Zidane had hinted he could rotate his usual strikeforce of Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale for the trip to Alaves, with Alvaro Morata, Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio all performing well in recent weeks.
However, Ronaldo justified Zidane's decision to keep him in the side by stepping up to dispatch a penalty after Real Madrid fell behind early on in their 4-1 win over Alaves.
The award of the penalty was somewhat dubious after the referee signalled for handball despite appearing to cannon off Alaves forward Deyverson's head, and Ronaldo's second had an air of luck about it with his long-range effort taking a significant deflection.
After Ronaldo missed a second-half penalty and Morata came off the bench to seemingly take the headlines with another goal, Ronaldo smashed in his third of the game to more than double his La Liga tally for the season in just a single match.
Watch Ronaldo's eventful hat-trick and mixed penalties in the above video...
