Moods change at Real Madrid in a hurry, and Zinedine Zidane is taking the blame after La Liga’s champions lost a second-straight home game in upset fashion.
And while Wednesday’s Champions League-opening loss to Shakhtar Donetsk is a bit different than losing to promoted Cadiz, both sting and come before a weekend El Clasico.
[ RECAP: Real Madrid 2-3 Shakhtar Donetsk ]
Real fell 1-0 on Saturday when it managed just two shots on target despite holding the ball for 75 percent of the game against Cadiz. Zidane’s men went down 3-0 on Wednesday against a Shakhtar team missing 10 men due to injuries and COVID-19 tests and could not come back.
Though the 3-2 loss came within a stoppage-time VAR decision of a point, Zidane knows what doesn’t fly in Madrid. From Marca:
Real is a point off of first place in La Liga with a match-in-hand, three points ahead of Barca who’s played one fewer match.
Zidane’s men won the league by five points last season as Barcelona fell apart and its young squad has been expected to turn that into a run of dominance atop La Liga.
But with Barca away next and then a trip to a Borussia Monchengladbach side that drew at Inter Milan on Tuesday, a real slump is just a couple of bounces away.
“We will show up on Saturday at four o’clock in the afternoon and play. For us now, tranquillity.”
Real has won a world-record 13 European Cups including four since 2014 and three in-a-row from 2016 to 2018. But in a tough, tough group, anything is possible.
