Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane criticised his players for switching off against Borussia Dortmund and throwing away a two-goal lead that cost the European champions top place in Champions League Group F on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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Just as in Dortmund in September, Real conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 with Thomas Tuchel`s side, although they still equalled a club record 34-game unbeaten run in all competitions.<\/p>\n
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Karim Benzema scored in each half to put Real in a comfortable position to win the group, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang responded and Marco Reus levelled in the 88th minute.<\/p>\n
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“When you see how the second half went you get a bit angry. We had the game in our hands but this is football. You need to carry on right until the end,” Zidane told a news conference.<\/p>\n
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“We created a lot of chances to score the third goal. Instead, we allowed Dortmund back into the game. Dortmund deserved first place. They demonstrated how strong they are.”<\/p>\n
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Real failed to finish top of their group for the first time since 2012-13, when they also came second to Dortmund.<\/p>\n
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Finishing second could yet prove to be a blessing for Real, who will avoid fellow runners-up Bayern Munich and Paris St Germain as well as fellow Spaniards Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, but could meet Zidane`s former side Juventus.<\/p>\n
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“I haven`t thought about the draw, I wanted us to finish top and we did everything to do that but I`m not going to keep going over it. We`ll see who we get on Monday,” the coach said.<\/p>\n
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“I don`t want to get Juventus for two reasons, but there`s nothing we can do about that.”<\/p>\n
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The coach praised Benzema for becoming the sixth player to score 50 Champions League 50 goals and paid tribute to his players for matching Leo Beenhakker`s side`s run of 34 games without defeat in 1989-90.<\/p>\n
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“For any player it`s important to score and I`m very happy with Benzema, his goals, his work and the team`s work. He`s happy and we`re happy with him and the run goes on,” Zidane said.<\/p>\n
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“I have to congratulate the players because they`re the ones that fight and work so hard. Our aim is to keep this run going, because there`s still a long way to go in the season.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane criticised his players for switching off against Borussia Dortmund and throwing away a two-goal lead that cost the European champions top place in Champions League Group F on Wednesday. Just as in Dortmund in September, Real conceded a late goal to draw 2-2 with Thomas Tuchel`s side, although they still equalled a club record 34-game unbeaten run in all competitions. Karim Benzema scored in each half to put Real in a comfortable position to win the group, but Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang responded and Marco<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4503,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4502"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4504,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4502\/revisions\/4504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.banglanewsus.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}