Real Madrid substitutes played a great game in the Copa del Rey first leg in the Last 32 round. They thrashed Cultural Leonesa (1-7) and Zinedine Zidane was very happy about it and was even shocked after Nacho’s amazing volley.
According to the Real Madrid coach, Nacho’s goal was even better than the one he scored in 2002 in the Champions League final against Bayer Leverkusen: “It’s more beautiful this one, it’s goal for the history, for Nacho. I’m very happy, he deserves it. He always trains well and very focused”, Zidane said in press conference.
Mostly, Real Madrid played with the substitutes but in the line up was also Toni Kroos: “He had to play in this position, we’re lacking of playing in this area. At the end, the idea was that he had to rest a bit but he wanted to play until the end. A normal game. At the half time, I asked him if he wanted to continue and he was alright”, Zidane explained.
The manager was also asked about the level of the substitutes, who played at a great level and perhaps they deserve more minutes: “All the players know that it’s difficult to play. Ones they’ll play more and others less. The good thing is that when you change the team or one player they are ready and they’ve proved it today. It’s complicated because we have games every three days and it’s difficult to be always ready but my responsibility is this one, so the team can compete in every game. We’re doing great, but we haven’t done anything yet, this is very long”.
Real Madrid started good the game and they were very focused from the beginning: “It’s not for the draw, every game we play we should do it in this way. Keep with our job, be focused and play”, Zidane finished in León.
