Real conceded three penalties for the first time in their history, all of which were scored by Valencia\u2019s Carlos Soler
\nNews Desk
\nMADRID
\nReal Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his side could not hide behind the referee\u2019s decisions or their injury and illness woes after they stumbled to a 4-1 defeat at Valencia on Sunday. Real conceded three penalties for the first time in their history, all of which were scored by Valencia\u2019s Carlos Soler, while Raphael Varane also scored an own goal, after Karim Benzema had given the champions the lead.
\nZidane had to make do without a total of six players for Sunday\u2019s match after midfield anchor Casemiro and record signing Eden Hazard tested positive for Covid-19, but the coach said nothing excused their performance.
\n\u201cWe can look for one thousand excuses and everyone can find any reason they want to explain this,\u201d Zidane said.
\n\u201cBut we should not be looking for excuses, everyone in this squad is a Real Madrid player.\u201d
\nThe coach criticised his side for reacting so badly to Soler cancelling out Benzema\u2019s opener.
\n\u201cWe played well in the first half an hour but the game changed completely after they equalised. This has happened to us a number of times and I don\u2019t like it,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cWe need to really analyse what is going wrong because any little thing can cause us lots of difficulties. Once we conceded the first goal we couldn\u2019t get back into the game. A lot of things went against us today.\u201d
\nReal goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, however, felt his side were unlucky.
\n\u201cWe were very motivated to turn the game around at halftime but I had to make a save as soon as the second half started and then we conceded two penalties,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cI think (Valencia striker) Maxi Gomez fouled Marcelo but Maxi shouted louder and they gave a penalty. There was also a foul on Asensio, we were talking about that in the dressing room but you can\u2019t change anything in the dressing room.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know how to explain it, they didn\u2019t create too many chances but we had three penalties go against us and their second goal was very bad luck.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real conceded three penalties for the first time in their history, all of which were scored by Valencia\u2019s Carlos Soler News Desk MADRID Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said his side could not hide behind the referee\u2019s decisions or their injury and illness woes after they stumbled to a 4-1 defeat at Valencia on Sunday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-155377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n