Zidane laments Madrid's lack of smarts
Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane acknowledged his team had approached the closing stages of its Clasico defeat to Barcelona incorrectly.
Zinedine Zidane criticised his Real Madrid players after their dramatic Clasico defeat to Barcelona, insisting they should have been smarter in the closing stages of their 3-2 loss.
Zidane's men had overcome Sergio Ramos's red card for a foul on Lionel Messi by seemingly salvaging a point courtesy of substitute James Rodriguez's header five minutes from time.
Even though a draw would have put it on the brink of securing a first league title since 2012, Madrid was pushing for a winner when Barca picked it off in the second minute of stoppage time, the Argentina international converting Jordi Alba's cutback with a trademark finish.
"I cannot be happy," Zidane told reporters after his first loss in three Clasicos. "We are disappointed with the result. When you get back to 2-2 with 10 men you have to think a little more and defend together.
"We thought that we could grab a third goal. From a throw in we were out of position and then what happened happened.
"Playing to push up when we have 10 men is dangerous and there was room for us to do something else."
Zidane acknowledged Madrid had paid the price for failing to take huge chances in either half of a match that saw Barca goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen make an astonishing 12 saves.
"We created a lot during the whole game. We had many goalscoring chances throughout the match, but couldn't bring the game under control," he said.
"When you don't kill the game off, this can happen, and it did. I have to look at the game again but I wouldn't have changed anything.
"Messi made the difference for his team. He has scored two goals, but it is not only Messi - we didn't control the game well in the moments that we could have done damage to our opponent.
"We cannot be happy, it is the first Clasico for me at home and the result is bad. We lose three points but there is a lot of the league still to play.
"We were not going to finish LaLiga in this match, but of course it would have been better to win. Overall we did not deserve to lose, although football is like this.
"Now we have to think about the next game on Wednesday [away to Deportivo La Coruna]."