Zidane: “We struggled with moving the ball and we didn’t see much great football”

Real Madrid never truly went into full gear on Wednesday night at Salamanca, and the football wasn’t pretty, as Zinedine Zidane alluded to in the post-game presser. Some of that, Zidane felt, was down to the pitch conditions.

“It was a tough night at a tough place to come and play. We struggled with moving the ball and we didn’t see much great football, but that was down to the pitch, not more than that,” Zidane said. “We’re pleased because in the end, we’re going through to the last-sixteen and that’s what we came to achieve”.

Zidane also mentioned that Gareth Bale suffered a slight ankle injury during the match. It was almost obvious seeing Bale hold his ankle and withold himself from 50/50 challenges that something was wrong. Zidane confirmed it.

On Bale, Zidane said “He’s twisted his ankle a bit, I don’t think it’s much, but as always, we’ll see tomorrow. He couldn’t go on”.

Zidane also spoke about Brahim Diaz’s performance, noting that although he’s happy for the young Spaniard, nothing really changes in terms of where he fits into the squad.

“I’m happy because he scored the goal and gave us the win,” Zidane said of Brahim. “All the players are here and when it’s your turn, you have to get it right and that’s it”.

”Nothing is going to change. Everyone knows their own situation and I have a squad of 25 players. If there’s a change, then we’ll see. Until the 31st anything could happen, but I’m happy with the players I have and with what they are doing, they are committed and that’s good”.

Make sure to catch the post-game podcast that went up tonight, where Sam Sharpe and Kiyan Sobhani broke everything down.