Pressure is certainly coming down hard on Zinedine Zidane as his Los Merengues were inflicted a humiliating 2-1 defeat by 10-men Alcoyano of the third division in the Copa del Rey.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane quickly dismissed suggestions that his side’s elimination from the Copa del Rey at the hands of lowly Alcoyano on Wednesday was an “embarrassment” for the Spanish giants as the third division side unexpectedly rose to the occasion and scored a humdinger of a winner late in extra time after being reduced to 10 men to inflict a humiliating 2-1 defeat on the league champions of Spain.
“It’s not an embarrassment, it’s something that can always happen in football,” Zidane told reporters.
“Something like this can happen in a footballer’s career but I take responsibility for it and we’ll keep on working. We’re not going to go crazy over this.”
Zidane, in a last ditch attempt to arrest the slide, brought on some of his juggernauts late in the game such as , but even all-out efforts of the world-class talent availed nought to prevent Real slipping to their worst Cup defeat since being knocked out by Alcorcon in 2009/10.
They also exited the competition in the last 32 in 2015/16 due to fielding an ineligible player against Cadiz.
“The players gave everything on the pitch, we had a few chances and when you don’t score them this is what happens. Their goalkeeper made two or three great saves and the second goal just didn’t want to go in. If it had done, it would have been a very different game,” Zidane added.
“It’s a difficult moment because we’re out of the Cup, we needed to do more than we did today but at least we tried everything.”
The Los Blancos’ Alcoyano defeat comes right after last week’s Super Cup semifinal loss to Athletic Bilbao, with Real having won only once in their last five matches in all competitions.
When asked if he was apprehensive about his position as coach due to the team’s appalling form, Zidane replied:
“When you lose people always talk about that but I take responsibility and whatever will be will be. I’m very relaxed, our players want to win every game, they always try to but sometimes something else happens. You have to deal with it,” he said.
“We’ve been playing well, a little bit less recently, but apart from the last couple of games we’ve done things well this season and we need to remember what we’re capable of.”