Zidane speaks ahead of Real Madrid’s opener against Deportivo

Real Madrid face Deportivo on Sunday —22:15 CET— in what will be their opening game in the 2017-18 La Liga season. Zinedine Zidane spoke in front of the media at Valdebebas and shared some thoughts on his expectations for the upcoming campaign.

“The key for us will be hard work, as it always is. That's what will lead to us winning things. We're working well and we're in great form. We have to make the most of that. It's a long season, there are 38 games and last year we won LaLiga in the final fixture,” said the French coach.

“We're on a great run of form and we've got to make it count. We're up against a team full of good players who know how to play,” he added. “They're a team who will go out to play well and they're at home as well. Every game will be difficult, they're on their own patch and they'll do all they can to put in a good performance. Their fans will be cheering them on and the most important thing is that we play our game, as we always do, and not think about the opposition. All I'm interested in is what we do out on the pitch,” explained Zidane about Deportivo.

Jesús Vallejo, Mateo Kovacic and Cristiano Ronaldo will not be available for this game and it will be interesting to see if Zidane gives some of his key players a rest after two tough games against Barcelona. Players like Marcos Llorente, Dani Ceballos, Nacho or Theo will surely be looking forward to playing and proving they have what it takes to replace the starters successfully.