Real 4-2 Bayern Says footballing effort, not referees, decided the contest

Champions League century up as Ronaldo becomes Real's top scorer at the Bernabeu

Pique's clear reaction to Cristiano Ronaldo's controversial goal

After watching his side complete a memorable 4-2 win on the night over Bayern Munich, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane hailed Cristiano Ronaldo's heroics after the Portuguese star scored a clinical hat-trick to help his side overcome the tireless German giants.

Los Blancos came into the second leg with confidence, having managed a 2-1 victory away in Germany, but a Robert Lewandowski penalty kick began to send some alarm bells ringing in the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

Ronaldo scored a fine header to assuage Madridistas' fears somewhat, but a Sergio Ramos own goal tied up the contest on aggregate, and it was left to the forward to score two more goals in extra-time to kill off the contest, with Marco Asensio's goal adding some further late gloss to the result.

"Ronaldo does his talking on the pitch and always steps up in the key moments," Zidane said in his post-match comments.

"The fans don't whistle him anymore, although this is the Bernabeu and it can happen from time to time, but the fans will thank Cristiano for everything he's done here."

The Frenchman admitted that the two-legged clash against Bayern was hard fought from beginning to end.

"It has been very even, but in the end we got the result and it was well-deserved because we played one of the best teams around," he stated.

"Today was the most difficult game we've played, but we scored six goals and we are very happy.

"I'm proud of the players because they kept a cool head, we fully expect to suffer in games like these," he admitted.

Inevitably, Zidane was asked about some of the refereeing controversies that marred the result, but he chose to diplomatically steer the conversation in the direction of his team's ability to get the desired result.

"The referee's job is difficult, but more than cards or offside goals, I think we deserved to go through because of the six goals that we scored thanks to our effort," the 44-year-old insisted.

"I don't know if I would be in favour of or against video replays in such situations.

"There is no luck in football, we had to win and we did it."

With El Clasico now looming on the horizon, Zidane admitted that some of his players could use a bit of rest after the extra-time victory over Carlo Ancelotti's charges.

"It's normal for them to be tired, but we have five days to recover," he pointed out.

"We're happy with the victory and we're going to recover fast, our effort has been tremendous but we will get some rest now even if some players have knocks.

"We managed to make three substitutions during the game and everybody contributed their bit, which is important because we need everyone's help."

Finally, the French boss refused to speculate on Real's potential semi-final opponents.

"We played against Bayern at a time that many people thought was too early," he pointed out.

"If we want to win something, we have to be willing to play against everyone."