Real Madrid Coach Zinedine Zidane has sympathy for former Barcelona Coach Ernesto Valverde after he was fired earlier this week after two-and-a-half years in charge at the Camp Nou. Quique Setien was appointed as his successor.
Zidane has reacted to the decision from their La Liga rivals, while also acknowledging that he is fully aware that he will come under similar pressure if results were to drop for Real Madrid.
“I’m sorry for him,” he told reporters, as quoted by Diario AS.
“He’s a Coach who has shown how good he is, and I have a lot of respect for him. As Coaches at clubs like Real Madrid and Barcelona, we know where we’re at and that isn’t going to change.
“If I lose a couple of games I’m going to get criticised, as I did a month a half ago. You can only try to give 100%. I’m sorry for Valverde.”
Real Madrid currently sit joint-top of the La Liga table with Barcelona, with both sides picking up 40 points from 19 games.
While Setien takes charge of his first game on Sunday night, Zidane and his squad face Sevilla on Saturday looking to put the pressure on their rivals to respond.
They’ll be buoyed by winning the Spanish Supercopa last week, but the focus now switches back to the league with their last outing coming back on January 4 when they defeated Getafe.
Meanwhile, Zidane wouldn’t give anything away regarding the latest injury news, as he refused to confirm whether or not injured duo Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema would feature this weekend.
