Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane insists his side will suffer no adverse impact of playing in the Alfredo Di Stefano stadium, the usual home of the club’s Castilla team.
Los Blancos will play their remaining ‘home’ matches this season in the ground usually reserved for their de facto ‘B team’, which is where Zidane began his fledgling coaching career.
Madrid will not play at their Santiago Bernabeu home for the remainder of the season due to mass restructuring work at the stadium, including the removal and relaying of the pitch.
“The Di Stefano is our stadium,” Zidane said, in quotes cited by ESPN. “It is true that we’re used to playing at the Bernabeu but we’ll adapt. We’ve trained there, the measurements are the same, so we’re ready to play at the Di Stefano.”
On Wednesday, Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo had told Cadena Ser, in what could be viewed as an insincere offer: “We are at Real Madrid’s disposal if they want to play at the Wanda.”
The front pages of Thursday’s editions of both Marca and Diario AS outlined how Madrid are not contemplating the offer from Atleti and will not be playing at their home, which opened in 2017.
Zidane also addressed other issues at his pre-match press conference, including what impact playing in front of no fans will have: “I don’t like playing without fans. That’s what I really think. We accept it and respect what the government tells us. It doesn’t take away our excitement about playing again.
“I don’t know what will happen. Further ahead if things change, we’ll see. It is not an excuse. We’ll play and we’ll play well.”
Madrid restart their La Liga campaign at home to Eibar on Sunday – they trail Barcelona by two points in the title race with 11 rounds of games remaining.