Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that Real Madrid’s pre-season preparations “weren’t good” after Sunday’s 6-0 thrashing of Espanyol in La Liga.
The Portuguese scored a hat-trick as Los Blancos won their third straight home game under Zinedine Zidane, and he praised the Coach for a “phenomenal job” in tweaking the side’s training routine and making him “feel much fitter”.
“We needed to work harder because pre-season wasn’t good, with so many trips [around the world],” he said after the game.
“Zizou has come up with a different idea and we’ve been better for it.
“The team are working very well. Zizou has done a phenomenal job.
“I feel much fitter. We won by a big margin and everything went well.
“You drop off when you have a big lead, it’s normal. The team were good.
“I’m happy to score another hat trick, but the best thing was that the team continued their good run of form and played well.
“We must continue. We mustn’t think about Barcelona or Atletico [Madrid].
“Both are doing well, but we have to work hard because there’s a lot of the season left.
“We’re a little behind them at the moment, but nothing is decided until the end of the season is done.
“We’ll see what happens in bigger games, but for me there are no easy opponents.”
Ronaldo: Pre-season was poor
Cristiano Ronaldo has admitted that Real Madrid’s pre-season preparations “weren’t good” after Sunday’s 6-0 thrashing of Espanyol in La Liga.
The Portuguese scored a hat-trick as Los Blancos won their third straight home game under Zinedine Zidane, also by a considerable margin, and he praised the Coach for a “phenomenal job” in tweaking the side’s training routine.
“We needed [to change our approach to training] because pre-season wasn’t good, with so many trips [around the world],” he said after the game.
“Zizou has come up with a different idea and we’ve been better for it.
“The team are working very well. Zizou has done a phenomenal job.
“I feel much fitter. We won by a big margin and everything went well.
“You drop off when you have a big lead, it’s normal. The team were good.
“I’m happy to score another hat trick, but the best thing was that the team continued their good run of form and played well.
“We must continue. We mustn’t think about Barcelona or Atletico [Madrid].
“Both are doing well, but we have to work hard because there’s a lot of the season left.
“We’re a little behind them at the moment, but nothing is decided until the end of the season is done.
“We’ll see what happens in bigger games, but for me there are no easy opponents.”
