Real Madrid beat Leganes 1-0 in the Copa del Rey quarter-finals thanks to Marco Asensio’s late winner, but Zinedine Zidane felt the winger “can do better”.
Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo were all missing for Madrid as they made the short trip to Butarque.
It was left to Asensio to strike Theo Hernandez’s low cross into the roof of Nereo Champagne’s net with one minute of normal time remaining for his first goal in over two months.
“We put in a sincere performance and the result is very good for us,” the Coach said after the game, with the second leg scheduled for next Wednesday.
“It’s true that we found it difficult to play our usual game, but we improved in the second half and scored.
“I liked our execution and we defended very well. We played with a lot of balance and picked up a positive result.
“We could’ve been a bit more more daring, but it’s normal. Many of our players had played very little, but we were much better in the second half.
“Lack of confidence? That may be so, but the season is very long. You have to recover by winning and not conceding.
“We can’t say we had a great game, but we got an important result in the tie. Hopefully we’ll do both soon, score and not concede.
“Ceballos? He hurt himself and that’s why I changed him. He couldn’t continue as he wanted. He only left [the game] for that reason.
“Positive run? We need to get on such a run, but we must also be patient and not think we’re going to do it all at once.
“This win is a turning point to winning our next two, three or four games. Asensio? He can do better, like everyone, but he scored the winning goal.”
Leganes 0-1 Real Madrid
Asensio 89
Leganes: Champagne; Tito, Bustinza, Siovas, Diego Rico; Ruben (Brasanac), Gumbau; El Zhar, Eraso, Naranjo (Amrabat 70); Beauvue (Omar 82)
Real Madrid: Casilla; Carvajal, Varane, Vallejo (Nacho 15), Theo; Marcos Llorente (Isco 73), Kovacic; Vazquez, Ceballos (Modric 67), Asensio; Mayoral
Referee: Sanchez Martinez
