Zidane: “The draw is a fair result”

Real Madrid made the most of a difficult night against Chelsea, coming from behind to earn a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their semi-final. Zinedine Zidane knows the tie is finely poised and, in his post-match press conference, he said: “I think it’s a fair result. It’s true we struggled with the press at the start, but we rectified that. In the second half, we were much better. We had to change something at half time, so we had to do something different. Especially with the press. We had to be more together when pressing. We were more compact. In the end, the result is fair because we were playing against a very good team, with very fast players, especially in attack. This was a very even match and that’s how the second leg will surely be too.”

It was Karim Benzema who scored the goal and Zidane was asked about the striker afterwards, stating: “He’s impressive and I’m happy with him. I’m not surprise about what he does in each match. But, I’m proud of all the players and the effort they gave today. We had to suffer, but I’m happy for the players because we’re still alive. Now we go to London and try to score goals to win the game.”

It was put to Zidane that he might need to make many rotations on Saturday against Osasuna. On that, he said: “We need to manage the minutes of the players because we have a league game on Saturday and then the return leg. This was a very even match and that’s how the second leg will surely be too.”