Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said he was surprised by his side’s slow start as they slumped to a second defeat in four days, 2-1 at home to RC Celta de Vigo in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarter-final on Wednesday.
Zidane’s men had not lost in a Spanish record 40 games stretching back to April last year before conceding twice in the final five minutes to lose 2-1 at Sevilla on Sunday and Zidane believes the European champions suffered a hangover from that disappointment in a first 45 minutes devoid of goalmouth action at a frigid Santiago Bernabeu.
“It was a strange game, especially the start,” Zidane said. “We have to analyze it, something is wrong for sure. We didn’t do what we had prepared to do, especially the intensity. The intensity wasn’t good at the start of the game.”
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However, the real damage to the hosts was done in a six-minute spell midway through the second half as Celta grabbed two vital away goals and their first win at the Bernabeu in a decade.
Iago Aspas’ 15th goal of the season put the visitors in front, before Marcelo equalized with a sensational volley five minutes later.
However, Celta went immediately back in front when leftback Jonny exploited a huge gap in the center of the Madrid defense to slot home.
The sides meet again for the second leg on Wednesday next week.
“There is no excuse. We are Real Madrid,” Zidane said. “We have to keep working and think about the next game. We will overcome this. We have done well until now and in the last two games we can’t be happy with above all the results. The performance in Sevilla was good, today it was a bit worse, but we shouldn’t worry.”
However, Brazilian midfielder Casemiro admitted Real’s confidence has been rocked by back-to-back defeats.
“This defeat is concerning because Madrid can never lose,” Casemiro said. “Losing in Seville has damaged us.”
Celta boss Eduardo Berizzo said he was not surprised by his side’s success, having knocked Atletico Madrid out at this stage of the competition last season.
However, he said Madrid remain the favorites to progress and believes Celta would need to play even better in the return leg to reach the last four.
“It is a bit arrogant to say we are favorites against Real Madrid, but we will enjoy a win like this,” Berizzo said. “None of my team’s victories surprise me. It is a huge win, coming to a place like this and facing the best team in the world, but we believed we could do it. We are happy to win, but it obliges us to play even better in Vigo because we are facing a brilliant opponent and it is the toughest footballing test.”
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