Ronaldo lets his feet do the talking

Cristiano Ronaldo hit back at his critics after his remarkable 35th career hat-trick fired Real Madrid past VfL Wolfsburg in their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday.

Although he has amassed 46 goals in all competitions this season and is top scorer in the Champions League and La Liga, some fingers were pointed at Ronaldo earlier in the campaign for not performing in the biggest games.

The Portugal forward even walked out of a news conference in February after facing difficult questions.

"Considering this has been a 'bad' season for me it has not been that bad," Ronaldo told reporters after his treble led Real to a 3-0 second-leg win over Germans Wolfsburg, securing a 3-2 aggregate victory.

"People can criticise me but I just keep on going and the numbers are there for all to see. I am very happy and with a month left of the season I can get even better."It was not the best, but one of my best, European nights," said Ronaldo.

"It's not bad is it? Goals are in my DNA and I want to keep scoring them for the team."

Ronaldo has 16 goals in the Champions League this season and is on track to break his record of 17 set when Real won the competition in 2013-14.

He netted an all-time high of 11 goals in this season's group stages and against Wolfsburg notched a fifth Champions League hat-trick, matching Barcelona rival Lionel Messi's record.

Meanwhile, Zinedine Zidane too overcame the biggest challenge of his fledgling coaching career.

Last week's surprise 2-0 defeat at Wolfsburg left the Frenchman facing the prospect of becoming the first Madrid coach since Manuel Pellegrini in 2010 to fail to reach the last four of the competition.

Tuesday's win at the Bernabeu saved him from that fate. "I've lived football as a player, I know what it is like. I am now living it as a coach, which is much more difficult," admitted Zidane after the 3-0 win over the German side.

"I can't worry about what might happen. We have to be calm when this (losing a first leg) happens; you can't go mad because all sorts of things happen in football."

Zidane attracted criticism for starting Danilo rather than Dani Carvajal in the first leg in Germany and for his decision to take off Luka Modric, saying: "I had to do something".

In the second leg, Zidane reinstated the Spaniard at right back and the decision had an instant impact, with Carvajal showing desire to beat Julian Draxler to the ball in midfield and then setting up Ronaldo's opener.

"We are a team and I always have to make decisions, we all win together but it's true that Carvajal was enormous today," said Zidane.