Real Madrid face Legia Warsaw on Wednesday in a very special day for Zinedine Zidane. The French manager will manage his 100th game as a coach after his debut in 2014 with Castilla in the Spanish Third Division. It was less than a year when the coach took over Benítez’s job and he has won two titles already in this time.
The stats of Zinedine Zidane are great, especially in the first team. In 100 games, he won 58, drew 25 and lost 16. However, with Real Madrid he has only lost two games, against Atlético de Madrid in La Liga and Wolfsburg in the Champions League quarter-finals.
He started training in 2014 with a defeat against Atlético de Madrid B in 2014. That year, Castilla couldn’t promote to the Second Division after finishing sixth in the table, so out of the play-off positions. The next year, Castilla were second in the table but Florentino Pérez asked Zidane to replace Benítez in the first team. Castilla, with Iván Ramis on the bench, couldn’t win the promotion either.
As a coach of Real Madrid, Zidane has won two titles in only ten months and he has only lost two games. Besides he ended the last season with 12 straight wins, fighting La Liga title until the end. However, his best success was winning the Champions League in Milan against Atlético de Madrid. Zidane won the Champions League trophy in 2002 as a player, in 2014 as an assistant coach and in 2016 as a manager.
Apart from the game against Atlético de Madrid, Zidane also had great success against Roma in his Champions League debut (0-2), against Wolfsburg (3-0) over coming after a defeat in Germany, and against Manchester City, getting the ticket to the final.
He only played once against Barcelona. The French manager won (1-2) despite the opening goal from Gerard Piqué. Cristiano Ronaldo scored the last goal, giving the confidence to the team to fight La Liga until the end.
His last success was winning the European Supercup against Sevilla in summer in Trondheim. The team was again very lucky because they had to wait until the last minute to equalize the game -again Sergio Ramos-. Daniel Carvajal scored the final goal.
99 games of happiness that should continue against Legia Warsaw in the Champions League draw.
