A win would have finished off any hopes for Real Madrid to be champion at the end of the season. With the comeback win 2-1, Zidane’s players showed resilience and abnegation to keep fighitn in La Liga. It also stopped the unbetean run of 39 games at home for Barcelona and Now Barcelona has only a six-point cushion over Atletico after they routed Bilbao 5-1. La Liga is far from being done.
Coach Real Madrid Zidane shares his views after the win:
“I’m very happy with everything. We struggled a bit initially, but I come away from here happy for our fans and for the team because it’s not easy to win here. I liked everything about my players’ performance. We put in a massive effort and I was pleased with everything, both defensively and attacking-wise.
When I see a team that’s united and all together, with everyone fighting for their teammates and for their coach, there’s nothing better. Coming into the game, we knew that we would have to work hard and be well prepared for it. We put in a good performance, we’ve got the three points and we now need to rest and start thinking about the Wolfsburg game because it’s very important for us as we look to continue what we’ve started.
We’re seven points behind and we need to focus on the next game, which is in the Champions League and after it we’ll get back to thinking about picking up three points in La Liga. We just have to focus on winning our next game. It’s important to have got the win here for that reason and for the remainder of the season and with it coming right before our Champions League game in Germany. I now want all of the players to rest up well because there aren’t many days before the next game and also given the the 90 minutes they’ve just put in”.
Coach Barcelona Enrique says he has faith in his players
“Real Madrid have players who are tough to defend and very effective. In the first half we were far superior and we had more chances, but in the second half they took advantage of their transitions.
Today we lost turned over too many easy balls. In the second half they stayed back and looked for the transition, and for most of the game we held them in check. You don’t get to choose when you lose. Today we didn’t experience the joy we were hoping for. For me this game is history.”
