I Trust Completely In My Players – Zidane

Zinedine Zidane has saod that Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale are both fit to start Saturday’s Clasico against Barcelona, while playing down the “must-win” game with his team 11 points behind the La Liga leaders.

“Cristiano is good, at 100 percent,” Zidane said. “He trained today, and that is what interests me. I will not talk about other things, we are only interested in tomorrow’s game, all of us. What Cristiano has done, everything, he deserves total respect from the club, and he gets it. After the holidays there will be more talk about all this.”

“I trust completely in my players, which is the most important, the communication,” Zidane said. “What happened with Gareth [in April] can happen with any player. The important thing, for me, is that the player thinks he is 100 percent ready to play. Gareth is now. We will see tomorrow if he does.”

“Whatever happens tomorrow we will keep working, knowing this is very long,” he said. “Tomorrow is three more points, but it will not [decide] anything. We have dropped some points but this is still very long and we can recover.

“It will be the most difficult game of the season. Barca vs. Madrid are always very difficult games, but the players play for these type of games. To win a league there is the whole year, but Madrid vs. Barca, the players always think of this date, and we are ready to play it.

“There is no nerves among us, it does not matter if it is 11, 5, 20 points. What we can control is our own game tomorrow, and we will have to play a great game against a very good team. All games are really finals, but it is always about staying relaxed and playing your football.”