Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane has insisted his double change at half-time against Juventus was borne out of necessity rather than making a statement to the underperforming duo of Gareth Bale and Casemiro.
“We had to change something. I wasn’t pleased with our set-up. It wasn’t meant as a way of punishing Gareth (Bale) or Casemiro,” Zidane asserted at his post-match press conference in Madrid.
Real went into the interval trailing by two goals, with defensive midfielder Casemiro having a rare off day at the office and Bale largely anonymous for the opening 45 minutes.
Young wingers Marco Asensio and Lucas Vazquez were the introductions, with the latter ultimately proving to be a game-changing substitution.
“We changed the way we played by introducing (Marco) Asensio and Lucas (Vazquez), who give us a lot of energy and we had to make the change.”
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After Cristiano Ronaldo’s heroics had powered Los Blancos to a 3-0 win in the first leg, Juventus had the near-impossible task of overturning a massive deficit away from home and they very nearly did the job, ultimately falling short at the death.
Two first-half headers from Mario Mandzukic had given Juve a 2-0 lead before Blaise Matuidi bundled in a third after a catastrophic blunder from Real custodian Keylor Navas.
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Zidane, however, refused to blame his keeper for the third goal as he added, “We mustn’t point the finger at anyone. The goal was everyone’s fault and we’re all in this together.”
As the match seemed destined for extra-time, Juve centre-back Medhi Benatia made a costly error as he clambered over Vazquez in a bid to prevent the winger from scoring and match referee Michael Oliver promptly pointed to the spot.
The away side were incandescent and as Gianluigi Buffon got his marching orders for his over-the-top protests, Cristiano Ronaldo stepped up to make it 1-3 on the night and 4-3 on aggregate to keep their hopes of a third consecutive European title alive.