Tuesday 23 February 2016

Benitez v Zidane Story So Far


Zinedine Zidane's appointment certainly rekindled the enthusiasm of the Bernabéu faithful, but a glance at his record so far shows that hardly anything has changed on the results front compared to the beginning of Rafa Benítez's reign.

Real Madrid dropped four points in their first six La Liga matches of the season, two at El Molinón and two at home to Málaga. They have let the exact same number of points slip in their opening half-dozen games of the second half of the campaign, only managing to secure a point at both the Benito Villamarín and the Rosaleda.

If we widen the scope to all competitions, Benítez compiled exactly the same record as Zidane has done in his first eight fixtures in the hotseat: six wins and two draws. The only difference is that the Madrid born coach had six La Liga games and two in the Champions League in this spell. The Frenchman has had one more in the league and one fewer in Europe.

The one area in which the duo's fingerprints are most visible is in terms of goals. Benítez had a better record defensively in his first eight matches in charge, in which his team only conceded once. Whereas Zidane has seen the Real Madrid net breached six times over the same period. 

On the other hand, Benítez's side 'only' scored 20 goals, while Real have notched 26 times in their first eight games on Zidane's watch.


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