Real Madrid suffered a shock 2-0 loss against Wolfsburg in the Champions League last night. Los Blancos looked jaded right throughout as goals from Ricardo Rodriguez and Maximillian Arnold left them with a mountain to climb in the second leg.
Benzema also got injured in yesterday’s match in what turned out to be a crushing blow after the high of Saturday’s Clasico triumph. Zidane felt that exertions in the Clasico were partly to blame for their performance, although he was still confident of a comeback in the second leg.
"Perhaps physically, yes," Zidane told a news conference when asked if Madrid had struggled to play at their best after the Clasico.
"We didn't start with the right amount of intensity for a Champions League game. They did. In football you make errors and we didn't start with intensity.
"What we have done recently has been positive and I'm not going to go crazy.
"Being Real Madrid we are capable of great things."
The Real Madrid manager also took full responsibility for the loss
"I have all the responsibility, total, as coach," Zidane said. "We will watch the game again, and analyse it. I am very proud of my players. I am responsible, and must look to see what happened. And I will do that. We had chances, the only thing is we did not get what we wanted here. It is 2-0 and we must accept that. It hurts as we knew it would be difficult, but nobody, including me, expected this."
Zidane calls for calm after loss
"It is always disappointing to lose a Champions League game, especially the way we lost it," he told reporters. "But we need to remain calm and united.
"We have to rest and think about the return leg because we have the chance to change everything," added Zidane, who won the title with the Spanish club as a player in 2002.
"I think it was the first half that caused us problems," Zidane said. "We were missing concentration at times, just things that happen in football, mistakes that you end up regretting.
"We did it better in the second half. Before the game the chances were 50-50 but now we must use all opportunities to turn things around and make everything well in the return leg.
"We lost this first leg, we are aware of that. But we have the chance to turn it around next week. We have 90 minutes and we will be prepared well to take on that task."
