Agence France-Presse
Wolfsburg (Germany), April 7: Zinedine Zidane admitted Real Madrid suffered an El Clasico hangover as they crashed to a 0-2 Champions League quarterfinal, first leg, defeat at Wolfsburg here Wednesday. The title-contenders will have a lot to do when the two sides meet at the Bernabeu, next Tuesday.
Real never recovered as first half goals from Swiss defender Ricardo Rodriguez and Maximilian Arnold put the hosts 2-0 up at the Volkswagen Arena with 25 minutes gone. It was a blow from which Los Blancos could never recover, five days after they beat Barcelona at the Camp Nou.
But then in the other game played on the night, Manchester City played out a 2-2 draw at PSG at the Parc des Princes and will definitely enjoy the advantage of away goals when the two sides again lock horns Tuesday.
Away goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho handed Manchester City an important draw on a night that will be remembered for some comical defending and a Zlatan Ibrahimovic penalty that was saved by City goalkeeper Joe Hart.
“I’m not happy, above all with the first half. This can happen if you don’t play with intensity from the start,” Zidane, said after the game. “We wanted to play here just like we did Saturday against Barcelona. It was an intensive game for us (in Barcelona) and we were flat in the first-half here.
“Now we have a chance in the return leg and it’s good we’ve got a game in three days (at home to Eibar) to get over this defeat. We had our problems, not just in the intensity, but also in our movement,” the Frenchman added.
It was a poor performance from Real’s star forwards as Gareth Bale was kept quiet and Cristiano Ronaldo rarely shook of his markers. France forward Karim Benzema went off on 41 minutes after a knock.
De Bruyne put City ahead on 38 minutes, only for Ibrahimovic to level after an embarrassing mix-up in the visitors’ defence soon after.
Adrien Rabiot then put PSG ahead just before the hour, but Fernandinho made it 2-2 on 72 minutes and ensured the French giants will be chasing the tie in next Tuesday’s second leg.
“It was a crazy match and we played our part in a great game of football,” Hart told ‘BT Sport’. “It’s now up to us to make the away goals count.”
