Zidane: “We’re not going on holiday now”

Real Madrid have already secured the 2019/20 LaLiga Santander title, but the players won’t be downing tools any time soon. While Zinedine Zidane explained in his latest press conference that the players will be given some days of rest following the Matchday 38 fixture against Leganés, he insisted that they’ll be back to work soon ahead of the Manchester City second leg on August 7th.

The coach said: “We’ll have a few days off because this end of the season took a lot of effort, but we’re not going on holiday now. We have won’t be off for two and a half weeks. The Manchester City match will be difficult, as the first leg was. But, we’ll fight until the final minute, until the final second.”

He said that he wants his team to compete hard against Leganés, even if there’s nothing at stake for the champions. Looking ahead to that match, Zidane said: “There’s one match left. We’re going to play it as we always do, trying to do well. We have to be motivated. When we put on that shirt we want to win every match. It’s not a friendly. It’s a LaLiga match.”

With Karim Benzema just two goals behind Lionel Messi in the race for the Pichichi Award, Zidane was asked if the team would try to get the Frenchman as many goalscoring opportunities as possible against Leganés. He wouldn’t say if they would alter their plan to the benefit of Benzema, but did state that he’d love the striker to achieve this goal. He said: “I’d like him to have it, for his sake. He’s a player who has done things well and he deserves it. But, tomorrow we’ll see how that goes.”

Zidane’s future was brought up during this press conference and was asked if he could confirm that he’d be coach for the 2020/21 campaign, something he didn’t 100 percent do. He replied: “I’m here, but you never know what will happen. I’m happy here. That’s why I’m so calm with what I’m doing and my situation. Things can change from one day to the next. So, I don’t know what will happen in the future. We’ll see how long I’m here for.”