French Legend Zinedine Zidane, now the proud manager of the legendary Real Madrid believes that Karim Benzema and Christiano Ronaldo can help Real Madrid win the UEFA Champions League semi-final against Manchester city.
Christiano Ronaldo had been suffering from a thigh problem while Benzema was facing hamstring injury. Now, the manager believes that they are 100% fit.
“The idea is that we want them to play. I think they’ll be fine but we’ll test. I think they’ll play. They’re 100%.” said Zidane according to Manchester City Website.
This is the first time City is playing in the European cup semis but Gareth Bale has stated that City is a strong team and should have gotten there earlier.
Zidane, too believes that City is the force to be reckoned with.
For decades, the Premier league was dominated by the four football giants, namely: Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. Since the Premier League’s induction in 1992, only four teams has won the title until now. All of them were the above four giants except Liverpool, who hasn’t found any luck in the EPL trophy till now despite being second and third several times.
With Rovers’ astounding victory in 1994/95 season and Leicester’s current explosive season, various other clubs have joined in one the victory. Most remarkable of those clubs are Manchester City who managed to win 2 EPL titles in 3 years (2011/12 and 2013/14).
This years’ Champions League witnessed the greatness Manchester City as they defeated the French giant PSG and its star Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Now, they are against Real Madrid and it will be sure to be a match to remember.
“City are a great side. If you leave them space they can hurt you. The players get between the lines and cause problems. We need to try and stop that happening”, said Zidane for City.
Christiano Ronaldo is the epitome of the football world and considered one of the best and if not the best player ever to play the game as he is constantly compared with his nemesis Lionel Messi. French Striker, Karim Benzema, is a remarkable player going toe to toe with Ronaldo on their same team. With both of them and Bale on the offense, hardly anyone can stop them.
Zidane, who himself is the legend was named the best European footballer of the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll. Known as the mystery of the football, he took France to win the 1998 World Cup. He has appeared in around official games for this team and his country. As a manager, he has a rather high win rate of 80.95% out of his 27 games. It is hardly doubtful that he knew this game better than anyone.
"Over in Wolfsburg we found it difficult. When they scored we suffered a little bit. We don't want that to happen again. We need to try and be strong defensively because we know we'll be put under pressure. But I think we can unleash our weapons in attack”, stated Zidane after they bearly won against Wolfsburg after trailing by 2 goals in the first leg of the Champions league quarterfinal.
Zidane believes it will be vital that they stop Kevin de Bruyne in their next game.
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¡A las 20h45, arranca la semifinal! Mira a qué hora seguirla en nuestro mapa.#RMUCL #HalaMadrid pic.twitter.com/2CRx33Z8zd
— Real Madrid C. F. (@realmadrid) April 26, 2016