Zinedine Zidane couldn’t break Pep Guardiola’s record of 16 straight victories in La Liga. In the 17th game, Villarreal drew at Bernabéu, s the record is over. The French manager is not worry about this and he is even relief because “we are not going to speak anymore about records”.
Again, Real Madrid played really bad in the first half. Villarreal scored first and Real Madrid had to come back: “Mistakes can happen in football, but generally speaking was the first half of the team. We can’t always win in the last minute. We missed the first half. I can’t say anything to my players, I’m happy with everything they’re doing”.
The French manager wanted to analyze the performance of the team: “We like to start the games with pressure, but we lack on that. We can’t always play well and start from the first minute. I like the second half and the effort of everybody. Physically we are very good”.
The first points fly from Bernabéu and Zidane is concerned about this: “I already remember these two points but can happen. It’s not for the attitude but we need to work from the beginning. We are going to rectify it because it’s not the first time it happened. It’s always complicated to change everything on the way, for this reason, in the half time, we changed some things, the formation and the pace, especially”.
Some players didn’t perform really good, especially Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, the manager didn’t want to point them: “It’s always important that Cristiano is in the pitch. I’m not concerned because he didn’t score. I want him to recover the form little by little”, Zidane commented.
Finally, Zidane spoke about the differences between the Sporting Lisbon game and the one against Villarreal: “We’ve improved because the second half today was superb. It’s a bit similar to the Champions League game but sometimes, when you’re behind, it’s complicated. If we are ahead, it’s difficult for the rival. We need more intensity from the beginning, especially if we play at home”, Zidane finished.
