Zinedine Zidane insists Real Madrid “aren’t in crisis” after their 3-1 defeat to Tottenham Hotspur but accepts “we lost to the better team.”
Madrid slumped to their second defeat in succession on Wednesday as Spurs became the first team from Group H to reach the Champions League last 16, prompting Zidane to primarily rue his side’s struggles in front of goal.
“We have to think that we’re now three points away from them and think about our final two games in the group,” the Coach said after the game.
“I don’t think we’re a ‘lost team’. Maybe we lack the calmness that we’ve always had in front of goal, and when you have two chances, you must score two goals.
“We had chances tonight but didn’t put them away, yet I’m sure that we’re going to turn it around.
“We’ve lost here, but the season is still very long, we congratulate our opponents and we reflect. We’re all very disappointed.
“Causes of this defeat? Maybe we’re not all at the same level, but these things happen.
“We’ve lost two games in a row and we can’t be in a good mood, but we have three or four days to rest and football doesn’t stop. My analysis is that we lost to a better team on the night.
“Crisis? We’re not in crisis. Analysis of the game? You always ask me if I’m concerned, but I’m not and I won’t be for the rest of the season.
“My analysis is that we played against a better team and we have to accept it. There’s no need to go over it again. We didn’t have a bad game.
“We had chances to draw level, but as it’s been happening lately, we didn’t find the goal.
“Physical fitness? We can’t say that we’re bad physically. We’re not at an optimal level because we’ve suffered defeats, and now we’re going to find it harder to recover.
“You can compare one player with another, and the best one recovers better than the others, but physically we’re fine. What we have to do is find our opponents’ goal, which we’ve been lacking lately.
“Everyone can give their opinion, but I don’t think there’s a mental block in the way. Sometimes you can score lots of goals and sometimes you can’t
“The latter’s been happening to us lately. We had chances to draw level, but the ball didn’t want to go in.
“Still, the defeat is normal and we played against a team that were better than us. We’ve suffered two defeats, but I have an experienced team and my players are champions. We’ll turn things around.
“Mindset? We couldn’t win and we’ve lost a Champions League match. We’ve suffered two defeats and we can’t be happy, neither can we be mentally.
“It’s a bad spell, but we have to accept it. When we win, we’re happy, and when we lose we have to hold our heads up high.
“There are enough games to turn this situation around, and that’s what we’re going to do.
“Dressing room? It’s not happy, and in life you sometimes have to accept things. Today’s hasn’t been good to us, but we still have time to change things.
“We can’t be happy. It’s a tough defeat for us to take, but it’s a deserved one and we must accept that.
“We know how to change this and we will. We have to put up with it until we flip the switch, which is what we’re going to do.
“Tottenham? Any team can win the Champions League and Tottenham are one of them.”
