After watching his side come back from an early deficit to roar to a 4-1 win on the back of a Cristiano Ronaldo hat-trick, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane denied that refereeing decisions helped his team.
The Frenchman will have been worried after seeing his team concede just minutes into the game, but a controversial Ronaldo penalty kick levelled things 10 minutes later.
Los Blancos went on to secure a big away victory despite the Ballon d'Or favourite failing to convert a second penalty kick effort in the second-half.
"I never criticise referees because they have a difficult job, and they don't go out looking to help any team," Zidane said in his post-match comments. "Both [penalty kicks] were clear for me."
The coach was unsurprisingly asked to discuss Ronaldo's hat-trick, as well as Alvaro Morata's increasingly strong claim for a starting position.
"Cristiano [Ronaldo] does his talking on the pitch," he said. "It's always better when he scores, and it's even better when he scores three!
"Morata and Benzema are both playing very well," he continued. "Alvaro [Morata] scored today but [Karim] Benzema also worked hard."
As has been his mantra in recent weeks, the Real boss emphasised the importance of finding ways to get three points out of difficult games if his team are to conquer LaLiga.
"If we don't suffer as we did in the first-half, it's impossible to win the league," he confirmed. "We must know how to suffer and win." 4-1 win over Alaves, Real Madrid were awarded a penalty kick for the first time since their March 20 game against Sevilla.
Since that day, they played 28 matches across LaLiga, the Champions League and the Copa del Rey without receiving a single penalty.
And as the old expression goes about city buses, after their long wait, two came along at once with Ronaldo scoring one and missing the other in his side's 4-1 victory. Cristiano Ronaldo shared one of the many duels at Estadio Mendizorroza on Saturday afternoon as the Real Madrid star scored one and missed one of his two penalties.
The second-half save by the Alaves goalkeeper marked Ronaldo's 12th missed spot kick for Los Blancos.
However, his overall record from 12 yards remains positive with a staggering 66 penalties scored from his 78 since joining in 2009, a success rate of over 85 percent.
It also means that penalties make up just under 20 percent of the winger's 371 goals for Madrid, without which he'd drop down from first to third in the club's all-time scoring records.
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