Zinedine Zidane was “very proud” of his Real Madrid players for staging a Champions League comeback against Wolfsburg but insisted “you always suffer”.
Madrid headed into the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final trailing 2-0 from the opening fixture in Germany, but Cristiano Ronaldo scored a hat-trick to ensure Los Blancos progressed to the last four, and Zidane detailed the sacrifices his players made.
“In football, you always suffer, but it’s better to win,” the Coach said after the game.
“It’s a day to celebrate and be happy, especially for what the players have done.
“It’s never easy, and even more so when you lose the first leg, but we won with personality, fight and sacrifice.
“I’m very proud of everyone, including those who played and those who didn’t.
“It’s hard to make changes in a game like this, but we played very well.
“I brought on Jese [Rodriguez] to give us a bit more defensive protection because [Karim] Benzema was tired, and then [Raphael] Varane came on to partner Casemiro in the middle.
“[Ronaldo] is a special player. The whole team played phenomenally well, but he made the difference.
“He scored three goals when the team needed him.”
