Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane called Tuesday's 1-0 defeat at Espanyol "painful" but "undeserved," after his side went down to a fifth La Liga loss of the season.

A mix-and-match Madrid lineup with Cristiano Ronaldo among those rested could have gone behind midway through the first half when Espanyol forward Gerard Moreno had a goal debatably ruled out for offside, while the visitors' closest in the first half was a Gareth Bale low shot which appeared to be blocked by the arm of sliding defender Victor Sanchez.

After the break Sergio Garcia stung Keylor Navas' palms from a tight angle, and from the corner Sergi Darder's header bounced off the top of the crossbar. At the other end, home goalkeeper Diego Lopez saved comfortably from Achraf Hakimi and Mateo Kovacic.

The game seemed headed for stalemate until the 93rd minute when Moreno's well-hit shot from 15 yards flew past Navas to condemn Zidane's side to a disappointing loss.

And Zidane told the postmatch news conference that his team might have gone ahead before half-time, but paid in the end for a below-par second-half showing.

"We did not deserve to win, but not to lose either," Zidane said. "We began very well in the first half, had chances to score, but didn't take them. The second half was worse, we did not find our play, the things that lately we have been doing well.

"It is a setback, but in the end we did not deserve this defeat. Espanyol had very few chances, but this is football, it's a painful defeat, and I am sorry for the players as it is a bad result."

Madrid had won their previous five La Liga games to climb to third in the table, although they remain 14 points adrift of leaders Barcelona and seven behind second placed Atletico.

"After five games when we played well and got good results, it did not happen today, above all the second half," Zidane said. "If we had scored in the first half when playing well, it would have been different. But no, this was a defeat, and difficult to take."

Espanyol's winning goal came when club captain Sergio Ramos left his defensive post to join the attack for the closing stages of the game, something which Zidane said should not be criticised.

"When time is nearly up, at 0-0, these things can happen," he said. "Sergio was further up the pitch. We always look to win, and even worse, we conceded in the last minute. But we do not need to go over that too much."

Zidane had rotated heavily thinking of next week's Champions League last-16 second leg at Paris Saint-Germain, although the XI still included international stars like Bale, Ramos, Raphael Varane and Isco.

"There is no Plan B, we are one team, one group," Zidane said. "Each game we must put out a team, nothing more. Today it did not go well. I don't believe it was [a lack of motivation]. But this is football, we lost today, and must think now about the next game."

Asked about the injury news surrounding PSG star Neymar, Zidane said he would wait until next Tuesday's game before being sure that the Brazilian would be able to feature or not.

"I do not know, we must just wait," he said. "We know he is injured, but we will have to wait and see if he is there [next Tuesday] or not."

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by Dermot Corrigan

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