‘Hurting’ Real refuse to throw in the towel

REAL Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane accepted responsibilit y for a bruising 3-0 El Clasico defeat on Saturday t hat left the European champions 14 points adrif t of riva ls Barcelona at t he top of La Liga.

However, the Frenchman insisted Real will come back stronger in the new year after La Liga’s winter break and refused to concede the league to Barca.

“We are down because it is a defeat that hurts,” said Zidane. “Madrid never give up, whatever happens. It is a difficult moment because we’ve lost by three goals. I could say we don’t deserve it, but that is football.”

Defe at le av e s Rea l s t i l l dow n in four t h, wit h Barca now nine points clear of their closest cha l lengers At let ico Madrid.

Zidane took the surprise decision to start Mateo Kovacic for the first time in La Liga this season to try negate the threat of Lionel Messi as the Croatian had so successfully when Real thrashed Barca 5-1 in the Spanish Super Cup on aggregate in August.

However, after Real missed a host of first-half chances, Kovacic was powerless to stop Messi wrestling control of the game as the Argentine netted from the penalty spot after Luis Suarez’s opener and then teed up Aleix Vidal for Barca’s third in stoppage time

Ronaldo miskick

“Tomorrow they are going to hammer me, that is football, but it won’t change how I think or what I do,” Zidane said. “I am the coach and I will continue like this as long as I am here.”

Any chance of a Real recovery after Suarez’s opener was dented when Dani Carvajal saw a red card for a blatant handball and Messi converted t he resulting penalt y k ick.

“The first goal comes from an error by us and the sendingoff completely changes the complexion of the game,” Zidane said.

“Playing with 10 men 2-0 down is very difficult both mentally and physically.”

A 3-0 defeat is also Zidane’s heaviest since he took charge of Real nearly two years ago.

However, there didn’t appear to be such a margin between the sides in the first 45 minutes as Real dominated.

Cristiano Ronaldo miskicked with the goal at his mercy after just 10 minutes and Karim Benzema hit the post before half-time.

Barca boss Ernesto Valverde refused to accept he had tactically outfoxed Zidane and insisted Barca can’t celebrate taking back the title from Real just yet, with 21 league games still to play.

“Our intention is that no one beats us,” he added when quizzed whether his side, on a 25-game unbeaten run, are capable of dropping enough points to let Real back into the title race. “Winning points is extremely difficult and losing them is easy. There is a long way to go.” just