Barcelona and Real Madird lock horns yet again in one of the most epic club football games of the season. One of the most watched sporting spectacle, the El Clasico sees Barcelona host Real Madrid at Camp Nou this Saturday. Both coaches looked in good spirit ahead of the mammoth clash
“I’m completely relaxed. This is a game of football and I am going to enjoy it” said Zidane this Friday.
The French Madrid boss will have his hopes high as he has his squad back to full strength with the exception of Raphael Varane who picked up an ankle injury during his international duty with France. The 19 man squad also misses out on Mateo Kovacic and Alvaro Arbeloa. When asked about the significance of Varane’s absence from the squad he said,
“The problem is we cannot control these things. He played the second game with France, he had some sort of injury. We don’t know exactly what it is. We did an ultrasound scan this morning and we will now do an MRI scan to see what it really is that he has. These things can happen if you have two games very close together”
This is Zizou’s first El Clasico as the manager of the Galacticos, he insisted that his side wasn’t looking for revenge after Barcelona thrashed them to a 4:0 defeat earlier in the season when they were under the supervision of the, now Newcastle boss, Rafa Benitez.
“I haven’t spoken to the players about the [previous] game. They know what happened. This is another game that is different to that one. It is a game that we must win and we want to win. I have seen and analysed the home game, but I haven’t spoken to the players about it” – said the former Madrid star and present coach Zizou.”
Barcelona are currently 10 points ahead of Real Madrid and enroute to clinching another La Liga title with only eight games left this season. However this does not concern the Madrid boss as he stated
“We are here to win games – we try to win every game. We’ve prepared well during the whole week; we’ve been without a few players but there’s nothing we can do about that. We will try to win as we always do”
He further added that he’ll enjoy the night’s sleep and will be relaxed before the big game. Many believe this could prove to be Zizou’s ultimate test of coaching credentials and may determine his long term future at the club, as his predecessor’s fate was decided majorly by the thumping at home by Barcelona earlier this season.
