Cristiano Ronaldo Cheating Only Blemish on Milestone Night for Real Madrid Star

The sublime and the ridiculous. Yes, we saw the two sides of Cristiano Ronaldo as he scored a hat-trick to sweep Real Madrid past Celta Vigo on Saturday night at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Los Blancos won 3-0, though this was no team triumph; it was the Ronaldo show.

He scored a hat-trick, the 23rd of his La Liga career, to win the game for his team. That took him ahead of Alfredo di Stefano and Telmo Zarra's shared record.

Ronaldo's goals also took him to 200 in 178 games in the Spanish top flight; the shortest number of matches it has taken for anybody to achieve such a total.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

There is no doubt about his talent. He won last year's Ballon d'Or. He's favourite to win this year's.

The fans at the Bernabeu certainly think so, chanting "Cristiano, Ballon d'Or" to their hero. The only downside to the evening was the way Real Madrid broke the deadlock.

Ronaldo, racing into the area, felt the slightest touch from Celta Vigo defender Jonny Castro and hit the deck.

It looked as if he was diving into a swimming pool. Even on the first viewing, you could see there was barely any contact.

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

Celta Vigo's players howled at the referee Undiano Mallenco, but he had made up his mind. Or had the papers?

Ronaldo was among the most vocal complainants the last time this referee was at the Santiago Bernabeu, for Barcelona's 4-3 victory over Real Madrid last season.

After that game, Ronaldo complained vociferously. He told the club's official website, (h/t PA Sport and ESPNFC.com):

"

I don't want to look for excuses but if you look at the 90 minutes, the referee made a lot of mistakes. Really bad. In my opinion, he was not up to a match of this stature. I looked at him and he was pale, that's because he was so nervous and he was unable to make the right decisions. Real Madrid is the biggest club and that creates a lot of envy around it. You can say that the treatment is the same, but it's not.

"

These stories were drudged up again before this game and perhaps they were playing on Mallenco's mind.

The only thing Ronaldo deserved for his dive against Celta Vigo was a yellow card. 

It predictably enraged the Barcelona press, including Sport, who wrote an article chronicling "a month of shame."

Daniel Ochoa de Olza/Associated Press

If the game had ended 1-0, we would be discussing Ronaldo's dive for weeks to come. Almost as if he was conscious of that, Ronaldo gave us something else to talk about.

His second goal was a sweetly struck volley that seared into the net and the third a cool finish.

Sergio Ramos summed up Ronaldo after the game, telling AS:

"

The statistics he is achieving are crazy. The truth is, it's a privilege that Real Madrid has a player like him. You have to invent words to describe him. He is breaking every record. At the moment, he is maybe in the best form of his career.

"

Both Real Madrid and Barcelona fans would agree with the statement, just not on the words to describe him.