Zidane: “We’re looking good physically”

Real Madrid earned a solid win against Celta in what was Zinedine Zidane’s return to the Santiago Bernabeu. The first half wasn’t brilliant for Los Blancos but they ultimately found a way through during the second part of the game.

“I go away happy. We’re feeling good and ultimately we’ve picked up a great result which is what we were looking for. We didn’t start brilliantly but that’s to be expected, we had to be patient. The end of the first half was better and then after the break we really improved. We finished stronger than we started out and that means we’re looking good physically,” said Zidane, who admitted that the team struggled a bit early on.

“We struggled a bit in the first half but the last ten minutes we did push higher up. The second half was a big improvement. We made some alterations at the break and then looked much better. I liked how often we got in shooting positions and we put in 20 crosses, when you have that many, you up your chances of scoring, which is what we did,” he explained.

Zidane decided to give Keylor Navas the chance to start. The Costa Rican keeper regained control of the starting spot over Thibaut Courtois even though Zidane said after the game that he will use all of his players.

“Today Keylor played and Courtois is going to play too. I also have Luca. I have three very good goalkeepers and we’ll see. Real Madridneeds two or three great goalkeepers and the coach will always have to make the difficult decisions. I’ll count on them until the end of the season and then we’ll see. Real Madrid needs at least two great goalkeepers because the season is long,” said the Frenchman.

Zidane was also asked about Dani Ceballos. The Spanish midfielder barely had a chance to play during Zidane’s last season coaching the club yet now it seems that he might have a role.

“I’m happy with his performance. He did a good job defensively as well. With the ball we know the quality he has. I will not talk about the past. It’s fine and we’re going to work in this direction,” concluded the coach.