• News

‘There are no excuses’ – Zidane takes blame for Valencia disaster

Zinedine Zidane - Real Madrid
Getty Images
Advertisement

Real Madrid lost their most recent league outing by a landslide, and the manager is at a loss of words to explain his team’s performance.

Real Madrid were humbled 4-1 by Valencia away from home on Sunday in what was a defensive horror show by the visitors.

The entire backline was at fault as each goal came as a result of a mistake by each of the four defenders.

Lucas Vasquez, Sergio Ramos, and Marcelo gave away penalties for handling the ball inside the box resulting in Cales Soler’s hat-trick while Raphael Varane put the ball in his own net.

It marked the first time that Los Blancos conceded four goals in a Spanish top-flight match with Zinedine Zidane at the helm.

“Three penalties, an own goal, it’s too much,” Zidane said post-match, via AS.

“The fault is mine because I am the coach and I have to find the solution. I can’t justify what happened. It’s a bad day, there are no excuses. We must improve defensively.

“I don’t think Valencia have been tactically better than us. The only thing is that we started well and everything changed after the goal. It’s hard to understand what happened in this match.”

Real Madrid currently sit fourth in La Liga standings with 16 points from eight matches, lagging four points behind leaders Real Sociedad with a game in hand.

x