Zinedine Zidane delighted with Real Madrid fight in late victory
Saturday 29 April 2017 19:59, UK
Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane praised his team's determination after a late goal from Marcelo secured a 2-1 win over Valencia at the Bernabeu to keep the pressure on La Liga title rivals Barcelona.
Having recovered from their El Clasico defeat by winning 6-2 at Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday night, Real took the lead after 27 minutes through a header from Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portugal forward, however, then saw a second-half penalty saved by Diego Alves, and it looked to have been a costly miss when Valencia midfielder Parejo crashed in an angled free-kick from 25 yards to equalise with just eight minutes left.
However, Marcelo produced another late show for Real at the Bernabeu when he cut inside from the left to clip a low shot into the bottom corner which keeps the destiny of the title race in their own hands.
"I am pleased with everyone's performance," Zidane said. "Valencia kept playing their game and we couldn't find the second goal to kill the game off. We're going to have to dig in until the end.
"We weren't clinical enough right from the start, perhaps we're a bit anxious or tense, but we didn't let it get the better of us, we played our game and did a good job.
"If you don't finish the game off, you're going to struggle. Today we had chances to close the game out earlier, so that's something we can still improve on. It's true that we had half-an-hour when we slipped into our comfort zone, but that changed after the Valencia goal.
"The fans got behind us again after we conceded the goal and helped to drive the players on and there was a different feel to it.
"We know the stats about our goals in the final minutes, that's what makes football such a beautiful game and you can't spend too much time analysing things.
"I can't explain the reason for it, but it is special to win it in the last 10 minutes, it is thrilling."
With perhaps with one eye on next week's Champions League semi-final first leg against city rivals Atletico, Zidane made eight changes from Wednesday night's match, as both Isco and Marco Asensio had to again be content with a place on the bench.
Zidane confirmed the absence of French defender Raphael Varane was precautionary.
"He'll be available for Tuesday. He made his return against Deportivo, but now at the end of the season we have to be careful with Varane," he said.
"There is nothing wrong with him, but we can't be taking any risks.
"Last time round he picked up another injury and I don't want that to happen again. I want him to rest up. With the injury to Pepe, we can't be taking any risks."
