Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has hailed striker Cristiano Ronaldo after he ended his goalscoring drought in the 2-0 win over Schalke on Wednesday night.

Los Blancos largely have the Portuguese international to thank for giving his side a commanding position after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie, as he scored the scored the opening goal of the game at the Veltins Arena before setting up Marcelo for the second.

Ronaldo had not scored since bagging himself a brace in the La Liga clash with Getafe a month ago and there were some claims the 30-year-old had lost some of his edge in front of goal, in some quarters of the Spanish media.

However there were little signs of that against Schalke and it was a characteristic performance from Ronaldo, which certainly impressed his manager Ancelotti as he ended a so-called three-game goal drought

The Italian tactician said: “Cristiano is back. Today we needed a game like that, with this attitude. Everything went well.

“He scored, he played well and gave an assist. It’s not a problem for us if he doesn’t score for a game or two but it’s obvious that the goal did him good.

“It wasn’t only a goal for the statistics. It was an important goal – the lead goal.”

Ronaldo will now be expected to go on a goalscoring run, especially with Real up against Elche in their next La Liga outing on Sunday.

The last time these two teams met in the league Ronaldo found the back of the net four times on the way to a 5-1 victory at the Santiago Bernabeu in September.