Zidane claims Real Madrid’s 3-3 draw against minnows Legia Warsaw was his fault

Zinedine Zidane blamed himself for Real Madrid’s draw against Legia Warsaw in their UEFA Champions League group F fixture on Wednesday which was held behind closed doors.

Despite leading by two goals in the first half thanks to Real Madrid’s fastest ever UEFA Champions League goal from Gareth Bale and another from Karim Benzema, the 11-time European champions eventually needed an 85th-minute equaliser to salvage a point after the Polish champions threatened to cause an upset.

Goals from Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe, Miroslav Radovic and Thibault Moulin nearly led Legia to a historic victory that would have shocked everyone, but Mateo Kovacic snatched a 3-3 draw to spare Zinedine Zidane’s blushes on his 100th game in charge of Los Blancos.

Speaking after the game, Zidane said Real Madrid’s performance was well under par, and blamed himself for the defeat :

“I’m not surprised with how the game went,” the Madrid boss said, according to Marca. “It was a strange match and what we expected didn’t happen, either in the game or in our performance.

“We lacked a bit of everything. When you score twice you can’t take your foot off the gas, that’s what we did and they scored. Then it was a very hard game. It’s my fault, but in the end we didn’t lose and that’s good.”

The point in Warsaw means that Real Madrid now trail Borussia Dortmund, who qualified for the last 16 with a victory against Sporting Lisbon, by two points at the top of Group F with two games to play.

The night was not without controversy either, as Cristiano Ronaldo appeared to have stamped on a Legia Warsaw player during the behind-closed-doors fixture. Pictures showed the Portugese captain leaving his foot on a player down on the ground in a game that Ronaldo will want to quickly forget. This could mean that UEFA decides to take action against the forward, which could result in him missing the final two games of the group stage.