Zidane: “Varane said his injury is nothing major, we hope that’s the case”

Zinedine Zidane’s post-match press conference after the victory over Osasuna started with a bang. Asked about the Chelsea second leg and Raphaël Varane injury, the coach told the assembled media that he wanted to talk about Saturday night’s game.

“F**k, let’s talk about today’s game, no?” was his first answer, when asked about whether Varane will be able to face Chelsea. “I’m happy with the match and the three points. I’m happy for my players. With Varane, I hope it’s a small thing. I spoke with him and he said it’s nothing major and we hope that’s the case. But for today we’re thinking about what we did in today’s match. Then, we’ll see about Wednesday.”

He continued: “In the first half, we had three, four or five chances to score and we didn’t score, which can be frustrating for the players. We said at half time that the goal would come. With patience and with good play, it came. So I’m happy for the players, who were on the pitch suffering. It’s a liberation. With these three points, we’re in the race. We’ll fight until the end. I’m not going to say that we’ll win titles, but I can say we’ll do absolutely everything we can to do so.”

Zidane was asked about Eden Hazard, the coach replied: “He was very good. Playing 70 minutes, I thought he was good. Especially in that position, close to Karim.”

Finally, the coach spoke about two players who didn’t play, Luka Modrić and Toni Kroos. On the decision to rotate them, he said: “Luka and Toni had a rest and that’s very good. That was an option. Antonio Blanco came in and did well. I’m happy for all the players because what we’re doing isn’t easy. We had another clean sheet and scored two goals, so we have to be satisfied.”