Zinedine Zidane spoke in front of the media before the clash against city rivals Atlético Madrid. It has been 15 days without listening the French coach voice but he has kept his tone and he’s ready to beat Atlético Madrid, the only team that has defeated Real Madrid in La Liga with Zidane on the bench.
Real Madrid haven’t won at Vicente Calderón since 2013 and Zidane lost in La Liga (0-1) at Santiago Bernabéu in February: “It’s not a test for me. It’s another game in La Liga, it’s 50%. We have to give everything in every play until the end. It’s going to be complicated, but we are use to tough games”.
Zidane doesn’t have Toni Kroos, Casemiro, Pepe or Morata available, however the coach is confident: “We arrive well, we have recovered some players. We have some problems, it can happen, but we are focused in what it matters, an important game. We had few days to prepare it, but we’re ready”.
Real Madrid are ready but also Karim Benzema, who will be finally in the list: “Benzema is in the list, he’s better and I’m happy that he could be with us. We’ll see tomorrow… He is in the list, so he can start the game”.
If Benzema plays, the formation should be a 4-3-3, whereas if the French striker is on the bench, Lucas Vázquez could be the fourth midfielder. According to Zidane, with or without Benzema, it doesn’t change anything: “It doesn’t mean anything. The formation can always be changed but the idea is one. We want to play, it’s a good game to play. We know the difficulties of the game, we have a very good rival. You can change a player, because there are players that are going to change, but not the style”.
There is some controversy around Morata’s injury, because Real Madrid are quite angry with the Spanish Federation. The Spaniard played against England when he already had some problems: “I’m not going to blame anyone. We’re upset with Alvaro Morata’s injury but this can happen. The only thing we want is to recover him and that’s it. This can happen”.
Apart from Morata, Zidane confirmed that Casemiro won’t play: “He is ruled out. He’s every day better. Ramos has trained well the whole week and we’ll see tomorrow how we are going to play”, Zidane said.
