Zinedine Zidane admits Real Madrid “sometimes expect three or four goals” from Cristiano Ronaldo “because he’s Cristiano and he knows that”.
Ronaldo failed to get on the scoresheet during Madrid’s 5-1 victory over Legia Warsaw in the Champions League on Tuesday, but Zidane was keen to stress the role undertaken by the Portuguese in Los Blancos’ build-up play.
“We had a lot of chances, scored five and I’m happy with our offensive play,” the Coach told UEFA’s official website after the game.
“We played attacking today. We can always improve, we played with a bit of risk but the good thing is that going forward we created lots of chances.
“The important thing today was to win and score. Everyone wants us to score five, six, seven but you have to work hard and sometimes you don’t always do it.
“I have to make decision with the forwards up top. We have a lot of games and all our players will get chances.
“But I’m happy with the three who started today and what they are doing. People always want Cristiano Ronaldo to score a hat-trick but he also created a lot of chances for team-mates.
“We are happy with everyone’s work. Today we played a bit higher up the pitch and more attacking.
“We took risks, they were able to counterattack us quite easily at times, but that’s how we set up and that was the risk.
“What interests me is that every time we play we create chances. When you have four or five attacking players and Toni Kroos, who was high up the pitch too, these things can happen and that was what occurred today.
“I’m here to try and give my best every game and that’s what the players do. Give our all to win the game.
“It’s normal that we play with such offensive setup that we give away chances. But I don’t think we have too many opportunities away. That was our decision.
“It’s true that we sometimes expect a lot of Cristiano, three or four goals. We all want him to score and he does too.
“He created chances but couldn’t score. But what I care about is that today he provided goals and scored last weekend. I like it when he lays on goals, too.
“That’s part of his game. We are always going to demand and expect a lot of him, because he’s Cristiano and he knows that.”
