Marcelo has labelled Cristiano Ronaldo "the best player in the world" and insists that the Real Madrid forward can prolong his incredible goalscoring streak.

The Portugal international netted a late leveller in the 1-1 draw with Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday evening, just about keeping Los Blancos in the hunt for second place.

Ronaldo has now scored in 12 successive games, bagging a total of 23 goals in that spell, and Marcelo was full of praise for his teammate after the match at the Bernabeu.

"He's the best player in the world. We have absolute confidence in him, as we do in all our players," he told reporters. "I'm sure he's going to net more in more games and extend his 12-match scoring run.

"We gave it all we had tonight. Their goal made things more difficult for us but we retained the ball well and we tried to win the game. It's not a case of being different in the Champions League. We can't lose our confidence based on one match, we did all we could to win it.

"We dug in and wanted to take the three points but the draw doesn't take away from our confidence. I'm not bothered about who their best player was. The keeper did make a few saves but I don't know who the best performer was."

Ronaldo has 39 goals for the season, 24 of which have come in La Liga to leave him behind only Lionel Messi in the scoring charts.