Zidane Affirms Criticism Makes Madrid Stronger

Zinedine Zidane (Twitter @realmadriden)

JAKARTA - Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his team used the criticism leveled at them in recent weeks as a motivator to get up so they could win 2-0 in the derby against Atletico Madrid on Saturday local time (Sunday WIB).

Less than two weeks ago, Real suffered shock defeats to Alaves and Shakhtar Donetsk before facing three more difficult battles on paper against Sevilla, Borussia Moenchengladbach and Atletico, with Zidane's future at stake.

However, Madrid actually won all three difficult matches. They returned to the form they showed in the last stages of last season when they were chasing the La Liga title.

With the win over Atletico, Madrid are now in third place, three points behind league leaders Atletico, despite having played one game more.

"We are hurt by some of the things that have been said but they made us stronger," Zidane said at a news conference after his side beat their neighbors with a Casemiro header and an own goal from Jan Oblak.

"Criticism is part of football and you have to learn how to deal with it. But the most important thing is that we believe in what we are doing. And today we proved that Real Madrid knows how to play," he said.

The Frenchman is now in a happy mood and praises his many players, with particular attention to midfield duo Toni Kroos and Luka Modric who he says are in the same form as when they led Madrid to three consecutive Champions League titles.

👔💬 Zidane: "We played a fantastic match from start to finish." # RealMadridAtleti | #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/VANfeez6tT

- Real Madrid CF 🇬🇧🇺🇸 (@realmadriden) December 12, 2020

But he stressed that Real still have a lot of work to do to maintain consistency.

"I'm happy with everything we do in the game. We pressed them all over the pitch and didn't let Atletico play. "It's been an incredible week, I'm very happy for the players because they believe in themselves," said Zidane.

"We're building on what we've done in the last two games and competing very well for most of the games. But there's nothing to celebrate because we haven't won anything."