His side’s season ended after defeat to Manchester City on Friday, but the manager insists that he is going nowhere
Zinedine Zidane moved to stamp out any speculation over his future on Friday, insisting he will be the Real Madrid coach next season.
Madrid’s 2019-20 campaign finally came to an end at the Etihad Stadium with a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City in the Champions League – Los Blancos exiting the competition at the last-16 stage with a 4-2 aggregate loss.
The club do have the league title to show for the campaign, and it is their first La Liga crown since 2017.
When asked after the game if he planned to be in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu in 2020-21, Zidane gave a defiant response.
“Well, I’m here, I’m Madrid’s coach until something happens which is out of the ordinary. I’m here, of course,” he told a news conference.
“You don’t have to think anything. I am the coach of Madrid, and that’s it.
“There are no more questions to ask in this regard. Now we are all going to rest and we will return to have a great season.”
Raphael Varane’s error gifted Raheem Sterling an early opener in Manchester, though Karim Benzema’s excellent header gave Madrid hope midway through the first half.
However, their chances of progressing to the quarter-finals were dealt a fatal blow in the 68th minute – Gabriel Jesus pouncing on a second Varane calamity to seal the win for City.
Zidane, though, is adamant his team must be proud of their achievements this term.
“We need to be proud. I’m certainly very proud of what we’ve achieved,” he added.
“We can’t, when we lose, be happy. The players aren’t happy, for sure. But what we can be proud of is that we have had a great season.
“The key today was to give everything on the pitch and that’s what we did, we were just missing a little something, I don’t know what.
“I think we’ve still got to be happy with the season. We will see what will happen next season. For now, we rest a little.”
Manchester City will take on Lyon in the quater-final after the French side got past Juventus on away goals via a 2-2 aggregate result.
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