Real’s Zidane strikes back to win tactical first-leg battle with PSG

MADRID (Reuters) – Zinedine Zidane has been questioned for his failure to repeat Real Madrid’s magnificent feats of last season, but the Frenchman showed he still knows how to manage a big game as his side beat Paris Saint Germain 3-1 late Wednesday night in the Champions League.

Zidane was expected to match PSG’s 4-3-3 formation and field Gareth Bale in the last-16 first leg at the Bernabeu, but instead opted to play Isco to give his team numerical superiority in midfield.

“We wanted to control the game and we did that,” Zidane told reporters. “We did that by playing four in middle against their midfield three, Isco had a great game and gave us greater possession and the game went as we had envisaged it.”

Real made the stronger start although it fell behind to Adrien Rabiot’s strike, which Cristiano Ronaldo canceled out from the penalty spot.

Zidane looked to his bench to win the game and made ultra-attacking changes by throwing on Bale and wingers Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez.

The injection of fresh legs startled the tired visitors, and after Bale came close to scoring from the right-hand side Asensio made two darting runs down the left which led to Ronaldo putting Real ahead in the 83rd minute and Marcelo’s late strike tightened their grip on the tie.

“Despite all the speculation, we showed that you can never presume Real Madrid are dead,” Real captain Sergio Ramos said.

After sweeping to the Liga and Champions League double last season and becoming the first coach to successfully defend the trophy since the tournament changed format, Zidane has seen his reputation as a coach nose-dive as his side fell way behind Barcelona in the Liga and was eliminated from the King’s Cup.

Real’s hopes for the season entirely rested on the blockbuster tie against PSG and with its supporters fully behind it in a competition the club has won an record 12 times, Real delivered.

“The Champions League turns us on,” said Zidane. “This club has won this competition 12 times for a reason.”

English clubs back on the march in Europe

Meanwhile, Liverpool’s 5-0 victory in Porto on Wednesday and Manchester City’s 4-0 stroll alongside the Rhine in Basel 24 hours earlier were a Premier League show of force that reverberated across Europe.

The continent’s most wealthy domestic competition has not punched its weight in the Champions League since Chelsea ambushed Bayern Munich to lift the trophy in 2012.

Since then, the spoils have been shared out by clubs from La Liga and the Bundesliga with Real winning it three times, Barcelona once and Bayern Munich once.

Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Borussia Dortmund have reached the finals in that period in which only Chelsea and Manchester City from England have contested semifinals.

Last season Leicester City was the only English representative in the quarterfinals while in 2012-13 and 2014-15 no English team made it to last eight.

That relative drought could be about to end during a season in which Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City has turned the Premier League title race into a procession.

Liverpool and Man City look 99 percent certain to be in the hat for the quarterfinals while Tottenham Hotspur, which drew 2-2 away to Juventus on Tuesday, is favored to join them.

Manchester United and Chelsea are still to play the first legs of their last-16 ties.

Jose Mourinho’s United will start as a favorite against Sevilla, and while Chelsea could have it work cut out to get past La Liga leader Barcelona, it is not too fanciful to imagine five of the last eight coming from the Premier League.

It is the first time that five clubs from one country have advanced from the group phase and on five of the six previous seasons that all of the English clubs involved reached the knockout stage, at least one has made it to the final.

While the road to Kiev is still a long one, the statistics underline the resurgence of the English clubs this season.