Barca ready to turn up heat on Zidane in Clasico
MANCHESTER CITY’S 2-1 midweek win over Real Madrid left coach Zinedine Zidane answering questions ahead of tonight’s meeting with leaders Barcelona over whether he feared the sack.
Real Madrid will trail their great rivals by five points if they lose at the Santiago Bernabeu and Zidane was asked if he felt he needed to win a trophy to stay in charge next season.
‘I don’t know. That is a question for someone else to answer,’ he said.
Barcelona coach Quique Setien added to the pressure when he said: ‘This game is more important for Real Madrid than for Barcelona.’
Madrid have lost the past four home league Clasicos and face a Barcelona side which is likely to feature former Middlesbrough striker Martin Braithwaite.
The Dane looks set to start tonight, completing an incredible two-year journey.
Braithwaite joined Middlesbrough in 2017 from Toulouse but only scored eight goals, moving to La Liga side Leganes on loan in January 2019.
He impressed for the Spanish strugglers and earlier this month joined Barcelona, living the dream with two assists on his debut as a substitute in the 5-0 win over Eibar.
‘If football was a religion then Messi would be God,’ he told Barca TV this week. The Dane is expected to partner Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann as Barcelona seek a victory that would pile pressure on Zidane ahead of Real’s second leg at the Etihad.
‘This is a delicate moment for us and we need our supporters with us,’ Zidane said. Real Madrid are out of the Spanish Cup and face finishing the campaign empty handed.
Setien denied he had sought the advice of Pep Guardiola on how to beat Real ahead of today’s game. The pair met in City’s team hotel on Wednesday but Setien said: ‘I did not go to Madrid to see Guardiola, I went to see the game and to see Real Madrid.
‘Then we had the opportunity to talk. There are things that City were able to do that would also benefit us but there are other things they did that don’t interest us.’