Zinedine Zidane was happy after the victory over Sporting Portugal. The French manager attended to the press conference with a smile on his face after qualifying to the Last 16 round of the Champions League.
The team suffered to get the three points against a really good rival, as Zidane confirmed: “We had some complicated moments, but it’s normal. I didn’t see Sporting playing with this intensity in any other previous games, but it’s normal because this is the Champions League. Once again we fought until the end, we kept playing after conceding the goal. We got a really beautiful goal with Karim Benzema. It’s obvious that playing every three days is not easy and we could lack some energy”.
Zidane had to change Marcelo and Gareth Bale with physical problems: “We took out Marcelo as a precaution. Gareth has something in the ankle and looks like a sprain. It’s early to speak about Bale’s injury. We’ll see, he needs tests. I can only say that it’s not only the hit”.
With this win, Real Madrid are unbeaten in the last 30 games, an amazing race: “We want to keep going what we are doing, knowing that in some games there are moments that we suffer. These 30 games are an extra motivation to keep going with our job. We’ll keep in this way but I don’t know until when because physically it’s not easy for everybody”.
Real Madrid will fight with Borussia Dortmund for the top position of the group, whereas Sporting are out of the competition: “Perhaps Sporting deserve more points. We now have a final against Dortmund, although there are other games. We are happy for winning here, we knew it was going to be a tough game. Now we need to rest because the next game is very soon”, Zidane said at José Alvalade.
Congratulations Madrista