After losing to Alcoyano in the Copa del Rey, Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane admitted that his side should have won the game but stressed that the defeat is "not embarrassing or anything of the sort".
Real Madrid suffered a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Alcoyano in the Copa del Rey here on Thursday.
"This is football. We were playing against a Segunda B side and we should have won the game. It's not embarrassing or anything of the sort," the club's official website quoted Zidane as saying.
"These are things that happen during a footballer's career and I take responsibility. We're going to keep working hard. We have to come through this as we have in the past and we will again. It's another painful day today because we don't like losing -- especially for the players, they want to win. We're not going to lose our heads, we have to think and keep working hard," he added.
Eder Militao scored the opening goal of the match, putting Real Madrid ahead in the 45th minute. However, Jose Solbes' goal in the 80th minute before Juanan's late goal sealed the win for Alcoyano.
Zidane also said the player gave their all in the match but failed to convert their chances.
"We did our best, the players gave it all they had out on the pitch. We had chances to get the second goal and when you fail to convert then we've seen what can happen. It was a different game today and we struggled. It's a tough one because it means we're out of the Copa. We should have done things differently but we didn't manage to do so," he said.
Shifting focus on other competitions, Zidane said: "I believe my players have faith in me, but you'll have to ask them. We haven't done many good things recently, but we've also done some good things this season. But we're still very much in the race for the league and in the Champions League. We have to stay focussed because we can still win things."
( With inputs from ANI )
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