Zinedine Zidane Claims Real Madrid Deserved to Progress Despite Spirited Juventus Comeback

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has claimed that his side deserved to progress to the Champions League semi finals after winning 4-3 on aggregate. That is despite a spirited Juventus comeback, which saw the Italians win 3-1 on Wednesday night at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid were in complete control of the tie heading into the second encounter, after winning the first leg in Turin by a 3-0 scoreline. However, Juventus were able to three goals in the first 60 minutes of the game to draw the tie level and rule out Madrid's advantage. 

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After being on the back foot for the majority of the game, the home side were awarded a controversial penalty in the second minute of injury time at the end of the game for a foul on Lucas Vazquez by Medhi Benatia.

Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon was sent off for his protests and Wojchiech Szczesny came on to face the penalty. After a lengthy delay, it was Cristiano Ronaldo who stepped up and duly scored the penalty to send Real Madrid through to the semi finals of the Champions League.

Speaking, as quoted by the club's official website after the game, Zidane admitted that he knew it would be a tough game, however didn't expect to go behind so early in the game. 

He said: “I knew we would be up against it, but I didn't expect what happened in the first minute. We knew that we'd have to dig in against a side that put in a great performance and that press high up the pitch. 

"I didn’t see us going out because I’m a positive person. I told my players we were going to be troubled, that it would be tricky”.

The penalty proved to be a major talking point after the game, with experts and fans having split opinions as to whether or not there was enough contact for the penalty to be awarded. Zidane went onto say that he is yet to see the incident back but has been advised by many that it was indeed a penalty, and also praised Ronaldo for his composure to score the penalty.

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He added: “It was a penalty, they've told me it was a penalty. I didn’t see it. The ref awarded it and we can’t change that, but I think it was a penalty. Cristiano is used to these situations. He doesn’t feel pressure. He scored the penalty and we got the win.

“There is nothing left to say. We’re in the semi-finals and we’re happy with that. They played well but we were just average, the difference is we kept believing until the end. 

"We deserved to go through to the semi-finals over the course of the tie and we can be pleased with that”.

Madrid will now be keeping a close eye on Friday's draw as they look to find out who they will face out of Roma, Liverpool and Bayern Munich in the semi finals of the Champions League.