Zinedine Zidane: Real Madrid on an upswing ahead of PSG test

Published on: 03 March 2018

Cristiano Ronaldo ran his career total to 301 goals in La Liga with a brace in Real Madrid's win over Getafe.

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said a "serious performance" in Saturday's 3-1 La Liga victory at home to Getafe was the ideal warm-up for their Champions League second leg at Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.

Zidane told his postgame news conference that he was happy that his team had recovered from their midweek 1-0 defeat at Espanyol and showed they were fully focused on the job in hand.

"The team are better than we were four days ago, and better to arrive with this victory for Tuesday's game," Zidane said. "It was very important to play a serious game today, we saw all the players very focused, which is what is most important."

Madrid were always in control at the Bernabeu and took the lead on 24 minutes when Gareth Bale slammed home after a loose ball fell to him inside the penalty area, on the night when the Wales international made his British record 117th La Liga appearance.

It was 2-0 just before half-time when Cristiano Ronaldo converted from Karim Benzema's clever disguised pass, taking the Portugal captain to 300 La Liga goals, after just 286 games in the competition.

After Getafe forward Loic Remy was sent off for a forearm smash on Nacho Fernandez, the 10 men got a goal back when Francisco Portillo converted the penalty after Nacho was lucky to avoid a second yellow after taking down visiting forward Jorge Molina in the area.

With 11 minutes remaining Ronaldo headed in his second of the net, from a cross by fit-again substitute Marcelo, and was then substituted by Zidane ahead of Tuesday's game, in which his side will defend a 3-1 advantage from the first leg.

Zinedine Zidane says his team is in good shape for Tuesday's big game at PSG.

Zidane would not reveal whether injured duo Toni Kroos and Luka Modric would make Tuesday's game at PSG, though he did suggest that if they could not train on Sunday morning they would be ruled out.

"We know what Kroos and Modric have done in this team, but we can just look to Tuesday's game and see who we will play," he said. "We have two days left, tomorrow is the day to see if they train with us. Then we will see. We will all travel one way or the other, then you will see the team on Tuesday."

Left-back Marcelo came through 30 minutes on his return from a hamstring problem, and looks set to start ahead of youngster Theo Hernandez at the Parc des Princes.

"We will see," Zidane said. "But Marcelo came into the play today, did very well. I am also happy with how Theo played."

Ronaldo now has 14 goals in his last eight appearances, form which Zidane said the team had to use to their advantage.

"Cristiano will be there," he said. "He is going through a good moment, and we must take advantage of that."

PSG figures talking up a heated atmosphere at the Parc des Princes on Tuesday was not a worry for Madrid, Zidane said.

"The atmospheres in the stadium, we are used to all that," he said. "What we must do ourselves is focus on the game we must play, not in if the game is being heated up. In Paris on Monday and Tuesday we will have people around us so that we can calmly prepare for the game."

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Source: espn.co.uk

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