Real Madrid eliminates Barcelona.

Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos hailed Cristiano Ronaldo as the best player on the planet after the Portugal international’s two goals helped his side to a 3-1 Copa del Rey victory over Barcelona at
the Camp Nou.

With the tie deadlocked at 1-1 after the first leg at the Bernabeu, Ronaldo put Real on the way from the penalty spot after 13 minutes and then doubled their advantage shortly before the hour.

Raphael Varane scored a third to ensure that Jordi Alba’s goal was far too little, too late, and Ramos told Madrid’s official website: “Ronaldo is the best in the world, and he shows it in this type of game. It is a deserved win for Real Madrid. You’re always going to suffer against teams like Barcelona – but we were very strong at the back, showing defensive stability, and we have been successful.

Every time we play them we get to know the qualities of this great Barcelona team better, but let’s focus on Madrid – we played a great game to book our place in the final. Ronaldo insists the cup win holds more significance than this weekend’s La Liga clash with Real, admitting his side show their true grit in the Clasico.

“Beating Barca is always a source of great motivation,” he told AS. La Liga is less important because we are a lot of points behind, we need to look more at the cup and the Champions League, but certainly we will go there to do our best. It was a very good game, we played very well. From the first minute to the last we were very focused, with a great attitude. We played better than Barca, scoring three goals in the Nou Camp is extremely difficult.

Lately whenever we play here we do very well. We play better here than at home. We must continue with this confidence. Most of the players like to play here and things are going well for us.