Zidane ‘disgusted’ by Real Madrid’s collapse at Levante

Zinedine Zidane voiced his distaste over Real Madrid’s 2-2 draw at Levante on Saturday.

If table-topping Barcelona wins at Espanyol on Sunday, Los Blancos will fall 21 points behind their bitter rival. They only have a two-point advantage over fifth-placed Villarreal in La Liga’s Champions League qualification places, and haven’t recorded a clean sheet in their last six top-flight outings.

“This year for us is a complicated year because we haven’t put six good results together in a row,” Zidane said, as reported by BBC Sport.

“We are disgusted with the result and the performance of the team.”

Real Madrid twice led over relegation-threatened Levante through Sergio Ramos and Isco, the latter of whom helped restore his side’s advantage after Emmanuel Boateng’s coolly despatched leveller. But the defensive frailties of the back-to-back Champions League winner came to the fore again when Luka Modric, Karim Benzema, and Dani Carvajal were unable to belt the ball to safety, allowing Jason to carve open the visitor’s defence with a smart assist. The goalscorer was substitute Giampaolo Pazzini, the 33-year-old who signed on loan from Hellas Verona on Wednesday.

“After our second goal we had to control the ball, nothing else, and defensively we were not good,” Zidane explained to Reuters.

“The truth is the game was under control and we had done the hard part, which is scoring. We scored the second, 2-1, but we made two errors and they scored two goals against us.”

Real Madrid entertains Real Sociedad at the Bernabeu next Saturday, and Eusebio Sacristan’s side should be buoyed after Friday’s 5-0 thumping of Deportivo La Coruna halted a run of four consecutive league losses.