Zinedine Zidane has rejected suggestions that Real Madrid hold the advantage over Legia Warsaw ahead of playing at the Polish club's empty stadium.
The Los Blancos manager spoke to the media ahead of his side's away trip to the Polish outfit, and stated his belief that his players would still need to perform at their best to secure victory on the night, despite no fans being present inside the arena.
Legia were sanctioned by UEFA after crowd trouble in their openingChampions League match of 2016/17 against Borussia Dortmund, with European football's governing body forcing them to play one game behind-closed-doors as well as handing Legia a £72,250 fine.
Legia also had 13 supporters arrested during their 5-1 defeat at the Bernabeu back in October as their fan base continued to cause trouble. Zidane, though, is of the opinion that it doesn't matter whether the stadium is full or not as Real go in search of securing passage to the last-16 of the continental competition.
He said: "There is no advantage. I always prefer to play in front of supporters even away from home because that's what football is all about, but that's the situation we face.
"We have to play without any fans and we're going to prepare as we always do, only thinking about how important the three points are."
🗣ðŸŽ'📰 #RMUCL
Zidane: "There'll be no crowd but that doesn't change anything and we'll have to be focused from off."
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Zidane also commented on the defensive injury crisis that has engulfed Real ahead of their Group F clash with Legia.
First-choice centre back pairing Sergio Ramos and Pepe are sidelined with knee and hamstring injuries respectively, while left-back Marcelo has been left in Spain after coming down with the flu.
Those losses leave the France legend with just six defenders to choose from for the away trip to Warsaw and, whilst admitting that he was peeved over his side's inability to keep a clean sheet in recent games, Zidane stated that he was not overtly worried by the defensive frailties shown recently.
He added: "It doesn't worry me although it is a fact. In every game we seem to concede, and it's always annoying, but you can't control everything in football even when you have the best players around.
"Of course we can improve that, and we work on it in training, but the opposition can always cause you problems at some point."
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