The 27-year-old was decisive for Los Blancos as his fourth goal in his last five appearances against Pep Guardiola's men sealed all three points for his team, and Jose Mourinho's assistant feels his tendency to rise to the occasion separates him from his contemporaries.
"For me, Cristiano is the best player in the world. He has given us some of our greatest moments. Back in [last season's] Copa del Rey final, he gave us the title," Karanka said after the match.
"Ozil also played well tonight. These are three important points that give us confidence to continue working hard."
The victory means Madrid now move seven points clear of Barca at the Liga summit with only four matches left, and are now overwhelming favourites to lift their first Primera Division title in four years.
However, Karanka insists Saturday evening's win at Camp Nou has not decided the outcome of where the trophy will end up, and urged the side to begin focusing on Wednesday's Champions League semi-final second leg against Bayern Munich, as they aim to overturn a 2-1 deficit.
"The league is not decided yet. There are other matches left and we have to continue working hard," he continued.
"The fans are happy with the work of this team. Now we have to focus on our Champions League match."
"We have to make a comeback against Bayern. We already know what the atmosphere will be like at the Bernabeu."
Your comments on this story...
I have always believed him to be the best in the world, CR7 is the most complete player u can ever find in modern football.
Dis is de return of de Galacticos, Barca's era has cum 2 an end.
As for Ronaldo being best over Messi, I'll accept it for this season so far, it's not over yet where the phenomenon Messi is involved.
Ronaldo infact is unlucky to be born during the Messi'merising era, he's excellent, but the Atomic flea is exceptionally special.
Sweyts: Experts have pronounce CR7 to more complete as a player than LM10.
Any coach would rather have CR7 than LM10.
My number is CR7
My number is Messi
My number 3.......none
My number4.........none
My number 5.........none
My number 6........then you can add all the rest players abo RVP,Rooney,Tevez,Kaka,Auguero,Neymar
What a sweet results.Some times last year I said for me Pep Gardiola cannot entirely be credited with the success of Barca as the key players have been there before.With the bulk of squad aging then his reputation will be tested & clearly with new players coming the dimension of the team also changes.
What is evident is the progress that Jose Mourihno has made with assembling the team & getting it to function as a unit.
Now let's go back to what I was saying to the currently broken-hearted yellow nation, that if the player is playing his best that must be gauge it by his influence on his team and that's precisely what CR7 is providing RMA in many ways, not only by scoring...now is the same with Tekoloshi to Flops?
He is the best.