KKR clinch second victory of IPL
MADRID: Zinedine Zidane insists he has no problem with Gareth Bale despite substituting him at half-time during Real Madrid’s Champions League clash against Juventus last week.
Sources said that Bale was surprised and angry at Zidane’s decision to take him off at the Santiago Bernabeu, with Real trailing 2-0 in a match they went on to lose 3-1. The defending champions progressed 4-3 on aggregate.
Bale was then not included in the squad for Sunday’s 2-1 win over Malaga in La Liga, but Real insisted the plan had always been to rest players for the match. Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric and Raphael Varane were also spared the trip to La Rosaleda.
Real host Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday and Bale will be hoping for another chance to state his case ahead of the first leg of their Champions League semifinal against Bayern Munichnext week.
Against Juve, Karim Benzema made way for Bale by dropping to the bench but Zidane says neither player feels sidelined by recent selections.
“No I don’t think so, this is football,” Zidane said on Tuesday. “I don’t see either of them looking sad, they are KOLKATA: The Kolkata Knight Riders clinched their second win of VIVO IPL 2018 when they defeated the Delhi Daredevils by 71 runs at the Eden Gardens on Monday night. KKR were powered to 200-9 by Nitish Rana’s bold half-century and Andre Russell’s sensational blitz. Later on, though the Delhi Daredevils got ahead, and stayed ahead, of the required rate for most part of their chase, they kept losing wickets and were eventually bowled out for 129 in 14.2 overs.
DD were reduced to 24-3 in the first three overs, after which Rishabh Pant and Glenn Maxwell made 43 and 47 respectively. But there was little else of note in the visitors innings. training well.
“I spoke to the pair of them the other day, they would both like to score more goals but everyone is working well.
“It is always going to happen in a side like ours. There are players in good form and playing well but I have to be ready always to evaluate who is the best players for the team at any given time.”
Zidane has preferred Benzema as a partner for Ronaldo up front this season, but the Frenchman has managed only one goal in his last nine games.
“We are not worried, we know the quality he has,” Zidane said. “He has to score goals of course, he knows that — he knows he can do other things but he has to score goals.
“He does suffer a little bit when he misses chances but the solution is easy. He has to keep working.
“It is just a little blip he is in at the moment — we had that as a team earlier in the season but we kept working. If he keeps working, I’m sure in a short time he will be scoring again.”
Real are chasing an unprecedented third consecutive Champions League crown and Bayern’s hopes of stopping them have been dented by an injury to key midfielder, Arturo Vidal.