Zinedine Zidane has heaped praise on his players after Real Madrid took control of their Champions League tie with Liverpool by winning the first leg 3-1 at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano.
Two goals from Vinicius Junior and one from Marco Asensio put Los Blancos in a commanding position going to Anfield.
“We haven’t won anything,” Zidane said at full time.
“We’re happy with what we’re doing.
“What the players are doing is tremendous considering the difficulties we’ve had.”
One of those difficulties was having Raphael Varane test positive for coronavirus the morning before the match.
“We didn’t change anything,” Zidane admitted.
“We swapped [Eder] Militao in for Varane, [stuck with] 4-3-3.
“We didn’t change anything of what we’d prepared.
“Lots of things are happening to us this season, but we’re prepared.”
Vinicius was able to take advantage of some shoddy Liverpool defending to score twice, proving his worth to this Real Madrid team.
“I’m happy for him because he needed to score, like Marco [Asensio] or Karim [Benzema] do,” Zidane said on Vinicius.
“He’s playing well, he’s helping the team and he gets a boost by scoring a goal.
“Vini was lacking goals and he’s going to gain a lot of confidence from today.
“He deserves it.
“I don’t know if it was his best game [at Real Madrid], but two goals in a quarter final is something very important.”
