Zidane blames "ball" for Bilbao draw

Real Madrid coach, Zinadine Zidane has balmed the ball for their draw against Athletic Bilbao on Sunday, after hitting the woodwork thrice.

“We hit the woodwork three times and the ball didn’t want to go in today”, said the coach.

Zinedine Zidane spoke to the media after the last game of the year, which took place at the Santiago Bernabéu against Athletic.

The coach said:

“The players had a great game again, but the goal just didn’t come. In football you have to score, we had three or four chances in the first half where if you score, the match would have been different. This is football and these things happen. That’s two matches without scoring, but we have to stay calm because the work has been done fantastically again today”.

“I come away feeling upset for my players because they deserved more today. Putting in a performance like we did, I would have liked us to have scored a goal for them. It wasn’t possible, but the important thing is that we always give 100 per cent and I think we gave more than 100 per cent again today. We didn’t get the goal, but I can’t blame my players for that”.

Evolution

“I’m very happy with the evolution of the team. We had difficulties at the beginning of the season, but now we are much better and strong defensively, improving every day. Today we couldn’t score, but the important thing is to create the chances and we’re going to change this in 2020 for sure”.

Ramos as a strikers

“Sergio usually goes up when there’s not long left to play. With Bale and Modric playing more out wide in the end, I think we did quite well, and Nacho’s shot… in the end it just couldn’t be”.

“They are the ones out there on the pitch battling away, they run and give their all for me. They gave everything out there today and so did I. I always look at the positives and that is that we have been doing well recently. Three points in three games is poor considering what we have been doing on the pitch”.

“We need our fans and hope they come to back the players. That is what they have been doing so far and they want to see the players giving their all, much like what we’ve seen here. They are so proud of the team. We need to keep grinding away. This is a tough, complicated league and it will be like that until the end. We will need to keep battling away”.

Lack of goals

“I spoke to them after the game. The most important thing is to leave everything out on the pitch. Sometimes in this game the ball just won’t go in, that happened today. We hit the post three times. We need to remain calm as we have a team replete with quality, we now we can score but it comes down to patience and keeping calm. We can change this for sure”.

Are you asking for a new striker this Christmas?

“No. Absolutely not”.

Are you missing a Cristiano Ronaldo?

“No. What we lack is continuity, because we’re going through different dynamics. This is just a case of two games without scoring. Football is like that at times. When we get back to training, and winning, we’ll get through it. What we need is to keep proving our mettle on every level”.