Zidane: “We’ve not won anything yet, but we’re alive in the Champions League and LaLiga”

Logically, Zinedine Zidane was thrilled with Real Madrid’s qualification for the Champions League semi-finals, having drawn 0-0 at Anfield to go through with their 3-1 first leg result. On the second leg, Zidane said: “We knew how to suffer, but that’s normal in a quarter-final. We controlled the match well. We were very solid and I’m very happy for all of the players. This is a team that unites even more than usual when there is more difficulty than usual. We are happy to go through and now we have to rest. We’ve not won anything yet, but we’re alive in both competitions. We can be proud of what we’re doing, but we have to continue and think about Sunday’s game.”

Although Zidane had warned of the team’s physical problems before the game, he actually said that they were fresher towards the end of this game compared to El Clásico. He said: “We finished this match much better than the one against Barcelona. The effort was tremendous, but we can very happy emotionally from how we’ve come out of these games. It’s normal to talk about the physical effort, especially in this season. Everyone is focused on what we have to do over the rest of the season. Now, we need to think about Sunday’s LaLiga match.”

Asked about Fede Valverde and his role at right-back, Zidane didn’t say much but he did say: “I think he had a good game, even in a position where he hasn’t played much. He was the option for today.”

Similarly, he had praise for Thibaut Courtois, saying: “What he is doing is phenomenal and I’m happy for him. It’s very important to have this solidity. He’s doing a good job.”

Finally, Zidane was asked about Chelsea, the semi-finals opponent, but wasn’t thinking about that yet and said: “If you’ll allow me, we’ll just enjoy today. We have many league games before that semi-final, but we know they’re a very good team.”