Zidane: “I’m fed up hearing that we’re only winning because of refereeing decisions”

Not for the first time since the restart of LaLiga and not even for the first time this week, Real Madrid collected three points thanks to a penalty kick. As with previous calls since football’s resumption, it was the correct call to penalise Dani García for a trip of Marcelo, but the theories that referees are favouring Real Madrid will rumble on and Zinedine Zidane is not at all happy about this.

The coach called for his players to be given more credit and respect in his post-match press conference, saying: “I haven’t seen a replay, but I’m fed up hearing that we’re only winning because of refereeing decisions. The players deserve respect. Nobody is going to shift our focus away from our goal. Until somebody mathematically wins the league we will not relax.”

Zidane also praised his team’s defensive play as they collected a fourth clean sheet in a row. He said: “I really liked our defensive solidity. We’re showing that we’re strong even when we don’t have the ball. We’re doing well in that sense. Maybe we lacked some sparkle in attack and we can improve on that, but our defensive solidity is important.”

Éder Militão was part of that defensive solidity as he came in for Raphaël Varane and Zidane praised the young Brazilian. He said: “Militão had a great game. It’s true he hasn’t played much this season, but all players are ready for when they’re called upon and I am happy for him.”

Finally, Zidane revealed that James Rodríguez had actually requested to be left out of this weekend’s travelling squad due to “a personal matter”.