Zinedine Zidane has made clear that, irrespective of how Sunday’s Madrid derby goes, his Real Madrid side are well and truly in the title race.
Los Blancos travel across the Spanish capital to take on Diego Simeone‘s Atletico Madrid, who are the current leaders in LaLiga Santander and have a five-point advantage at the top with a game in hand.
“It’s a final, but like all matches,” Zidane said during Saturday’s pre-match press conference.
“We always have to win. But whatever happens we’re going to stay alive in LaLiga. We are focused on playing a good game.”
Zidane confirmed that Karim Benzema is back and available for Sunday’s derby, which is good news after Real Madrid were only able to score one goal in each of their last three games.
“We know what Karim is, he is important for us,” he said.
“Karim will be there tomorrow. He is important in our system of play, especially when we have the ball.
“It’s true that we want to score more goals. The important thing is to create chances. Then each player can give more.
“Everyone can give more and everyone wants to improve their goalscoring figures. I remember that I didn’t score many goals with the quality I had and I wanted to improve my goalscoring figures.
“Defensively we have done well and that is our strength. It’s a question of everyone and we’re doing well.
“We have to continue in this vein: defending and then creating chances. But the first thing is to be strong defensively.”
The French coach was asked about Eden Hazard‘s return from injury after reports began to emerge on Friday that he had suffered a relapse.
“There is no relapse for Hazard, what we want is for him to be back at 100 percent,” Zidane stated.
“We are going little by little, without haste. We have to rely on how he is feeling.
“It is important that when he comes back he feels strong. We’re not going to risk anything with his return, but he’s fine and I hope that next week, maybe, he can be with us.”