Zinedine Zidane confident Real Madrid can catch Barcelona in La Liga race
Sunday 19 November 2017 13:07, UK
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane insists his side can still catch Barcelona in the title race despite falling 10 points behind the league leaders.
Real could not respond in kind to Barca's 3-0 win over Leganes earlier in the day as they played out a goalless clash with Atletico at the Wanda Metropolitano.
That draw - the first 0-0 league stalemate between the capital clubs in 12 years - means both Real and Atletico are now 10 points behind Barca after 12 rounds of the season, but Zidane has no intention of throwing in the towel.
The Frenchman told a press conference in quotes reported by AS: "It's not insurmountable. I'm sure Barca are going to drop points. We have to continue doing our work and that's all.
"When you see that it's 10 points, it's a lot of points, but it's going to change. I'm sure we will cut the gap.
"Barca are not going to pick up points all the time and we have to be up there."
Real have confirmed captain Sergio Ramos, who was substituted at half-time, suffered a fractured nose in the draw and the defender will continue to be assessed.
Neither Real or Atletico found goalscoring chances easy to come by as defences came out on top in the first derby at the Rojiblancos' new Metropolitano home.
Zidane added: "Our game has been good today, we just couldn't get a goal. I feel for the players, for the effort they put in, but we're going to carry on.
"With the game we played, we deserved more."
Atletico boss Diego Simeone, who led his side to the title in 2014, was also satisfied with his team's efforts but felt they could have shown more composure in front of goal.
He said: "We played an important game, against a very strong opponent. We could have won and we could have lost.
"It's true that the team has anxiety. We are in a moment where we're not finding goals easy to come by. I'm happy with the first 30 minutes."
Regarding Antoine Griezmann, who hasn't scored in eight games, Simeone said: "I back members of my family to the death. And I'm not going to change now. Every player has to turn up, not only Griezmann."
