Tonight Real Madrd will face Sevilla which is the 4th force of La Liga at the moment but is surprisingly in the race for title. Surprisingly means that no one would have thought about them being close to the title at the start of the season, not because there is any doubt about their strength. They have shown year after year that they are becoming stronger and they totally deserve to be this far in the competition. But tonight they will face a direct rival like Real Madrid. Real comes from the loss against Chelsea and knows very well that there is no room for mistakes tonight. It will certainly be a great match!
Zidane appeared as usually in an online press conference ahead of Real Madrid's LaLiga matchday 35 clash with Sevilla (Sunday, 9:00pm CEST). He said: “We know what's at stake, there are four games left, four finals to finish of LaLiga. We want to forget about the Champions League and focus only on the game. All I can promise you is that we're going to compete, from minute one to minute 90. Our focus is on these four games and finishing the season strongly". The players just want to win and that's the same in every game, even if sometimes it's not possible. The key thing is to give it our all, 100%. That often reaps its rewards and if it doesn't you have to be patient. Sevilla are a good side and they've shown that this year. They are fighting to win LaLiga and we know the type of performance we need to produce if we want to win the game", continued the coach.
Sergio Ramos' latest injury was another press conference talking point, but Zidane insisted that the centre-back was fine to play in midweek. About Ramos: “The only concern is tomorrow's game. Sergio Ramos felt a recurrence of his injury and the important thing is to have him recover as soon as possible. He hasn't rushed back. He wants to be with the team and the other day he was 100%. He was ready in training. Then, after 90 minutes in the match, he had a niggling pain. But it's unavoidable. He was the first one to be upset with the news, because he can't play in this final stage of the season as he would have liked. He played the other day because he was 100% fit, it's flared back up again and we don't want to take the risk. The important thing is that Sergio Ramos gets better as soon as possible. We have had many injuries. Of course that worries me. This year the players can never rest. But, it is what it is. I hope things will be more normal next year."
Zinedine Zidane addressed the media on Saturday and Eden Hazard's laughter was one of the main talking points, with the coach pointing to the fact that the Belgian has apologised. He revealed that he had a conversation with the Belgian after the events of Stamford Bridge. About the episode that included Hazard: “He's apologised about the other day. He didn't intend to cause any problems. He's a Real Madrid player and he will compete for Real Madrid. So far we haven't seen the Hazard people want to see. I think he's going to turn things around. It's a tough time but he's got a contract and he wants to succeed here. He knows what he has to do on the pitch and he'll do that. We spoke after the match the other day. He spoke with me, the players and the club about what happened. It's now in the past."
The coach didn't want to talk about what this means for Ramos' future, while he dismissed talk about his own future too. He said: “I'll always make things easy for the club because they've given me everything. I give my all and focus on work. My father told me to focus on the work. The rest is blah, blah, blah”, was all that the Frenchman said on that.
Mendy isn't in the squad for their vital game against Sevilla either, joining other absenties Varane and Lucas Vazquez. To cover these losses, Zidane has called up Miguel Gutierrez from the Castilla, who trained with the squad alongside fellow academy graduate Antonio Blanco. Real Madrid's full squad list for the match against Sevilla is as follows: Courtois, Lunin, Altube; E. Militão, Nacho, Marcelo, Odriozola, Miguel; Kroos, Modrić, Casemiro, Valverde, Isco, Blanco; Hazard, Benzema, Asensio, Vini Jr., Mariano y Rodrygo.
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