We Found It Tough Against Tottenham – Zidane

Zinedine Zidane said that Tuesday’s 1-1 Champions League draw at home to Tottenham set up a “final” where the Group H winner is likely to be settled at Wembley in two weeks’ time.

Raphael Varane netted an own goal under pressure from Harry Kane and gave the Premier League side a lead midway through the first half, with Cristiano Ronaldo equalising from the penalty spot before half-time after Toni Kroos had been felled by Serge Aurier.

“Now there is a return game at Wembley and we will go there to try and win it,” Zidane told a news conference after the match. “We will see how the next game goes. The three points we did not get here, we will try and get them at Wembley, which is now a game like a final.

“It is not their home pitch, and we will try and go there and win the game. If we play away as we did in Dortmund, we will be happy.”

“I am happy, not for the result, as we always want to win at home,” he said. “But we played well, made chances, hit the post, and there was also a great goalkeeper, on both sides.

“Karim would have liked to score, especially the header he had. Lloris will only save one out of every 10 of those. They defended very well, worked very hard, and it’s a logical result. ”

Zidane admitted that his players had found it difficult to break down Tottenham’s well organised defence, especially when the visitors had a result to defend.

“The problem is that if you can score early, the game is different,” he said. “When you concede, the opposition can sit back. And they are very good defensively, they are strong, and we found it tough. The goal came when we played the ball quickly on the ground, with Toni, Karim and Isco, and we got the equaliser.”

“We are improving all the time,” he said. “Maybe we have not done well at home in La Liga, but we are better now on points, and we are top of the group in the Champions League. We know it is not perfect yet, but we are getting better for sure.”