Zinedine Zidane refused to place the blame for Real Madrid’s shock exit from the Copa del Rey at the feet of his players.
The La Liga leaders were eliminated at the quarter-final stage by Celta Vigo, who held their top-flight rivals to a 2-2 draw on Wednesday night having secured a 2-1 triumph at the Bernabeu a week ago.
Real twice fell behind at the Estadio de Balaidos, with Cristiano Ronaldo first cancelling out Danilo’s own goal but Daniel Wass’ strike with five minutes remaining effectively ended their hopes and meant Lucas Vazquez’s leveller was little more than a consolation.
But Zidane was proud of the effort of his players, saying in quotes on the club’s official website: “We produced a very good 35 minutes in the first half, and after they went ahead we didn’t give up and put in a great performance right until the end.
“I can only congratulate them all because we put in a great display. When you perform poorly and don’t deserve anything you have to look at yourselves, but today there’s no blame to be laid.
“We produced a disciplined performance, full of character and it was a shame that we didn’t manage to achieve what we wanted.
“We played really well and that’s all there is to it.
“We’re out of the competition and I’m disappointed given how they all performed and after having played like that and because as we got close to the end of the game it was still possible, but it wasn’t meant to be and we’ve now got to rest up and focus on challenging in the remaining competitions.”
The draw means Real have won only one of their last five matches but Zidane insists he will not be making any radical changes to his side as they turn their attention on La Liga and the Champions League over the next few weeks.
He added: “The only thing left to do is rest up and turn our attentions to what lies ahead. We are going to keep on with this approach and we are still in two other competitions. We don’t need to go over this anymore.
“We took our eyes off the first game and in this one we weren’t good enough. I am happy with what we were able to do though.”