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Title race not yet over, says Real Madrid’s coach Zinedine Zidane

Mayank Pawar
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Real Madrid

The stage is set for the El Classico and many feel that a loss for Real Madrid would be curtains for them in the La Liga. Barcelona have a mammoth 11 point lead over their arch-rivals having played one game more.

Zidane is confident and says that no matter what happens in the Classico, the La Liga race is far from over. Madrid head into the Santiago Bernabeu under a lot of pressure looking to cut down the point difference to eight. However, history is heavily stacked against his superstar team.

A deficit of 10 points:

No team in the history of the La Liga has managed to recover from a deficit of 10 points or more and go on to win the La Liga. At this point, Barcelona looks all set to run away with season’s title.

On the other hand, Zidane is not ready to give up the defence of their title as yet and remains defiant about his team’s chances of finishing at the top. He believes that even if Barcelona go ahead by 14 points, there is still a lot of time left to catch up.

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Zidane was asked whether an El Classico win for Barcelona would mean curtains for the La Liga title he said on Friday “No, whatever happens tomorrow we will keep working and keep thinking. There is still a long way to go and tomorrow is just three points. We know we have to play well, but it won’t change anything, whatever happens.” 

“I’m sure it’ll be the most difficult game of the season, Barca-Madrid games always are. They’re great, but they’re always difficult,” he added

Guard of Honour and the crowd:

The Frenchman dismissed the suggestions of Barcelona giving Madrid a guard of honour for their exploits in the Club World Cup and added that he is not interested in such things but would rather focus on the game only. 

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The Bernabeu crowd has been very restless this season and have jeered some of their own players with Karim Benzema bearing the maximum brunt of it. Zidane called on the supporters to remain patient and highlighted the importance of home advantage is such important matches.

In an appeal to the Madrid faithful he said: “I don’t normally try to send messages, but as you’ve asked me, I’ll tell you that the fans help us and now is the moment we really need them behind us.”

“They always are, but tomorrow we really need them. We won’t win in first 10 minutes, we need to be patient, take our time and we can win this game. We need the fans from first to last minute.” he concluded. 

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