We did everything but score – Zidane unable to explain Madrid loss

Zinedine Zidane could not explain how Real Madrid failed to score in their last-gasp 1-0 defeat to Villarreal, but is adamant his side have not hit rock bottom.

Los Blancos were caught out by a swift Villarreal counter-attack in the 87th minute, with Pablo Fornals’ clever chip sealing the visitors’ first LaLiga win at the Santiago Bernabeu.

It compounded a frustrating outing for Madrid, who saw Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo denied strong first-half penalty shouts, while the latter missed a one-on-one as part of a dominant opening 45 minutes.

Madrid have now won just once in five league outings and will be 19 points adrift of leaders Barcelona if their Clasico rivals beat Real Sociedad on Sunday.

And Zidane rued his side’s failure to score, saying: “We did everything, we had many chances to score in the game and the ball did not want to go in. 

“You cannot explain that. It is a bad run, which continues so it is difficult for my players.

“We tried in every way, but the ball did not want to go in. I cannot explain that. 

“All I can say is we will have another game to end this bad run, whether it is Thursday, or Sunday, or whenever it comes.”

Zidane conceded his team are “hurting” after the latest defeat, but when asked if his team were at rock bottom he said: “It is a bad moment, nothing more.

“We are hurting from this blow, but we are not going to change our mentality, to move forward, and to fight. 

“It could be mental as it hurts when you do not win.

“We are Real Madrid. There is still life, hope, and in football the good thing is you have another game every three days.

“The results are very negative recently. But we can change this, get out of this, by winning games, and winning well. I hope that is Thursday, or Sunday.

“In football there are two teams, and what you must do is score a goal more than the opponent. We tried to do that.”