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Real Madrid secured an impressive 3-1 win over Liverpool in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie on Tuesday night. Vinicius Jr. opened the scoring after latching on to a brilliant pass from Toni Kroos before Marcos Asensio doubled the Galacticos' lead.
Mohamed Salah pulled one back for Liverpool in the second half to make it 2-1 while handing the visitors a vital away goal. However, Vinicius Jr. grabbed his second goal of the night to cap off what was a brilliant performance.
This leaves Liverpool with the uphill task of overturning the deficit when they return to Anfield on April 14th.
The game was not played at the Santiago Bernabeu but at Real Madrid's 6,000-capacity Di Stefano Stadium inside their Valdebebas training ground.
Following the game, Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp revealed it was strange for the Reds to play at the Di Stefano Stadium.
"This here tonight was really strange because it was a difficult situation in the stadium. But Anfield is, at least, a proper stadium and that will be good for us," said Klopp via Liverpoolecho.
However, Zidane quickly hit back at Klopp's comments.
"I don't have an opinion about what Jurgen says, we are proud to play in this stadium," said Zidane.
Zidane lauds Real Madrid’s superb performance against Liverpool
Zinedine Zidane led Real Madrid to the Champions League title in 2018, where they secured a 3-1 win over Liverpool in the final. The Real Madrid boss did not hesitate to praise his side's performance against Liverpool on Tuesday night.
However, he also added that Liverpool will give it their all to secure another famous comeback on home turf.
"We know they [Liverpool] are going to leave all they have on the pitch, I have no question about that. We just need to be ready and it is going to be a very good second-leg. We will need to do the same thing in the second leg," said Zidane.
"We are happy with the result but we have won nothing. We are happy with the performance and what the players have done is huge after a lot of difficulties in our season," Zidane added.
Real Madrid will host Barcelona at the Santiago Bernabeu in a highly-anticipated El Clasico showdown this weekend before traveling to Anfield to take on Liverpool on April 14th.
