Zidane: “The Castilla players who featured vs Getafe all have great futures”

It wasn’t a win for Real Madrid on Sunday night, but their 0-0 draw against Getafe came under exceptional circumstances as only 12 senior outfielders were available. Discussing the game, Zinedine Zidane spoke of his pride at the effort shown by all of his players.

He said: “It wasn’t easy for my players. But, we don’t have a limit. We’ll keep fighting until the end of the season. There is no limit at this team. We need to rest well and keep going. We have many players out, but that’s what it is. It’s not just like this for us, as there are many teams suffering like this.”

Asked about the title race, the coach said he thinks Real Madrid still have a good chance. He stated: “There are many points remaining, so we need to continue. When we win we have to continue and it’s the same after this game.”

Several Castilla players featured in this game, as Víctor Chust played the 90 minutes and Antonio Blanco and Sergio Arribas both came on. Asked if he thinks they have a chance of making it into the first-team squad one day, Zidane replied: “Of course I do. They have great futures. They’re very solid. Chust was really good and he played with character. All of the youth teamers did well and I’m happy for them. I’m happy for all the players who featured tonight. Giving up would be a defeat, but everything else is the journey.”

Finally, he was asked why Blanco and Arribas played the full 90 minutes with Castilla on Saturday, but Zidane explained that he didn’t expect to need them. He said: “We didn’t change their minutes because [the Fede Valverde and Ferland Mendy absences] were at the last minute. Maybe we could have anticipated this and done something different, but that’s football.”