Ronaldo is Real Problem for Zidane

Getty Images

Zinedine Zidane has insisted that there is harmony in the Real Madrid dressing room after Cristiano Ronaldo had criticised his team-mates.

Following Real’s 1-0 defeat to Atlético Madrid which left them 12 points off top-of-the-table Barcelona, Ronaldo had said: “If we were all at my level, maybe we would be leaders.

“I don’t want to disrespect anyone, but when the best players aren’t available it’s harder to win. I like to play with Karim [Benzema], with [Gareth] Bale, with Marcelo. I’m not saying the others like Lucas Vazquez, Jesé [Rodriguez] and Mateo Kovacic are not good players. They are very good players, but it’s not the same.”

Ronaldo later back-tracked on the comments, apologising to his team-mates via WhatsApp and telling Marca: “I was referring to the physical level, not level of play. I am not better than any of my team-mates.”

The Real coach Zidane said on Tuesday: “Cristiano has spoken to everyone, with me and all, the matter is past.

“We know the importance of Cristiano and we’re all with him. What’s important is what we have ahead of us and we’ll get through it together.”

Real’s captain Sergio Ramos also attempted to play the comments down, saying: “I know Cristiano well and I don’t think he was trying to shift the blame on to any of his team-mates.”

Real visit Levante on Wednesday with their hopes for La Liga written off and Zidane will make a number of changes after Luka Modric joined the injury list with an ankle problem, though Pepe is back in a 19-man squad.

Ramos and Dani Carvajal are rested while Marcelo, who has muscle fatigue, and Karim Benzema, with a thigh muscle problem, are out.

Bale rejoined his team-mates in practice for the first time since mid-January when he suffered a calf injury, but was not included and could return on Saturday at home to Celta Vigo.

Related articles

• UAE- Ronaldo set to revel
• Ronaldo breaks Roma resistance as Real win 2-0
• Granada 1-2 Real Madrid: Modric stunner snatches vital victory
• Roma won't focus on Cristiano Ronaldo, says Spalletti
• Decade after Materazzi head butt, Zidane the focus in Italy
• BBC, Isco Among Real Madrid Players Thriving Under Zinedine Zidane
• Roma 0 Real Madrid 2: Cristiano Ronaldo and Jese earn Zidane first Champions League win as coach

Ramos Reacts to Ronaldo Real Boos

Getty Images

Real Madrid fans who jeered Cristiano Ronaldo in the Champions League win over Roma should "think a little first", says captain Sergio Ramos.

Ronaldo scored one and set up the other, but also missed several chances, as Real progressed with a 2-0 win.

The 31-year-old appeared to criticise some of his team-mates in February, although he claimed he was misquoted.

"I respect the fans but when things don't go well they should support their players," said defender Ramos.

"I would tell the fans to think a little first. We all want the best for Real Madrid," he told Spanish newspaper Marca.

Ramos, 29, added however that he could understand why a section of Real's fans criticised the club's all-time top scorer.

"When the fans at the Bernabeu boo you it is because they want to transmit their demands to you, they want to push us and see the best performance from us," said the Spain international.

Coach Zinedine Zidane told Spanish television that the jeers would "only motivate" Ronaldo.

Ronaldo, who scored his 40th goal of the season as Real made the Champions League quarter-finals with a 4-0 aggregate win, questioned whether Real's squad had enough quality last month.

Picking out France forward Karim Benzema, Wales attacker Gareth Bale and Brazil full-back Marcelo as team-mates he particularly enjoyed playing with, Ronaldo claimed that if all of his colleagues were at his level "maybe we would be leaders".

Ronaldo has now scored 40 or more goals in six successive seasons at Real Madrid

Winger Lucas Vazquez, forward Jese and midfielder Mateo Kovacic were three players Ronaldo claimed were "not the same" as his preferred line-up.

Real Madrid are third in La Liga, 12 points behind Barcelona and four off Atletico Madrid.

Related articles

• Marcelo returns to Real Madrid's starting XI against Roma
• Real Madrid's 'patience starting to wear thin' about Wales star Gareth Bale's injury woes - reports
• Decade after Materazzi head butt, Zidane the focus in Italy
• Confidence key for Keita as Roma await Zidane's Real Madrid
• Zinedine Zidane: Modric has to shoot more
• Cristiano Ronaldo: I was not friends with Giggs, Scholes and Ferdinand, friendships off the pitch don't matter

Gerrard Bookends Buck Rodgers

Steven Gerrard has criticised Brendan Rodgers’ “overconfident” approach to Liverpool’s fateful game against Chelsea that derailed the Merseyside club’s 2013-14 Premier League title bid.

Rodgers has had to deal with uncomfortable headlines linking the former Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp with his job, with scrutiny building after Liverpool needed penalties to scrape past Carlisle in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday. And quotes from Gerrard’s new autobiography published in the Independent will do little to improve matters.

Liverpool led the table by five points with three games to go until they were beaten 2-0 by José Mourinho’s side in April 2014. Manchester City proceeded to win a game in hand and ultimately won the title by two points.

The match against Chelsea swung on Gerrard’s slip, which presented the ball to Demba Ba for a breakaway goal in first-half injury time. But in Steven Gerrard: My Story, the influential midfielder – now with LA Galaxy – points the finger at Rodgers as well.

Gerrard said: “I’ve never been able to say this in public before but I was seriously concerned that we thought we could blow Chelsea away. I sensed an over-confidence in Brendan’s team talks. We played into Chelsea’s hands. I feared it then and I know it now.”

Gerrard also recalls the moment he was told he would not be in the starting lineup against Manchester United last season. Gerrard was used as a half-time substitute in the game but was sent off just 38 seconds after his introduction for stamping on the United midfielder Ander Herrera – and he reveals in the book that he came close to venting his displeasure at Rodgers himself.

“A sudden lump formed in my throat,” he said of the conversation in the manager’s office earlier in the week. “I had a split-second decision to make. Do I have a go at him?”

Elsewhere in the book, Gerrard discusses his role in keeping Luis Suárez at the club in the summer of 2013. The Uruguay striker appeared set to join Arsenal, only for Liverpool to turn down the London club’s bid and keep Suárez at Anfield to spearhead that title near-miss.

Gerrard recalls texting Suárez to ask: “Luis, what’s going on here? We need to straighten this out.” The pair talked at training the next day and then met with Rodgers, with Suárez eventually persuaded to stay on Merseyside. He scored 31 league goals that season before leaving for Barcelona last summer.

Gerrard also describes being deployed to attract transfer targets to Anfield and claims he was asked by the club to “take a crack” by text at both Alexis Sánchez, before the Chile forward’s move from Barcelona to Arsenal, and the Germany midfielder Toni Kroos, who ultimately left Bayern Munich for Real Madrid.

Related articles

• Steven Gerrard Full Of Praise For Liverpool Boss Brendan Rodgers
• Steven Gerrard recounts his role in trying to convince the likes of Willian and Toni Kroos to sign for Liverpool
• Steven Gerrard: I would have stayed at Liverpool if offered a backroom role
• Are these the messages Steven Gerrard sent to convince Willian and Toni Kroos to sign for Liverpool?
• Steven Gerrard says he would have stayed at Liverpool if offered a coaching role
• Steven Gerrard: I would have stayed at Liverpool if offered a backroom role

Wonderful Wonderful Gelsenkirchen

A stoppage-time goal from John O'Shea on his 100th cap preserved the Republic of Ireland's unbeaten record in European qualifying by rescuing them a 1-1 draw away to world champions Germany.

It looked as though Martin O'Neill's men were set for their first defeat of the campaign after Toni Kroos' long-range shot had given the home side the lead with 19 minutes to go in Gelsenkirchen.

But O'Shea, who is his country's sixth international centurion, was on hand to flick the ball into the bottom corner of the net with the last kick of the game to salvage a point.

This means that Ireland are second in Group D, level with Poland on seven points (but having scored a goal less) and three points ahead of Germany.

Prior to his late heroics, O'Shea had been part of an Ireland defence that had fought valiantly for 70 minutes to repel a German team who were looking to bounce back from a defeat in Poland that had brought an end to their 19-game unbeaten run in competitive matches.

For much of the match they did just this, keeping their shape and restricting the home side the space they needed around the box to capitalise on their vastly superior possession.

Ireland’s cause was helped by a sluggish first-half display from a German side who are still adjusting to the post-World Cup retirements of Philipp Lahm, Per Mertesacker and Miroslav Klose and missing Mesut Ozil, Marco Reus, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Andre Schurrle through injury.

The traffic was all one way but largely came to a halt ahead of the 18-yard box as Mario Gotze and Julian Draxler struggled while Thomas Muller was far less influential than he had been during the World Cup in Brazil.

Saying that, they could easily have led at the break but for the crossbar denying Erik Durm's somewhat speculative 40-yard effort, Antonio Rudiger heading wide when he should have hit the target from 10 yards out and David Forde saving well from a Draxler angled shot.

The home side came out with renewed vigour after the break, having sent on Lukas Podolski – one of only six substitutes named by Low.

Forde produced a superb save to palm over a Kroos shot, but he was powerless to prevent a low drive from the same player later in the half, which found the back of the net off the inside of the post.

Now needing to chase the game, Ireland sent on Hoolahan and he was presented with an excellent chance to snatch a point when he was found in the box by a low cross from James McClean but his goalbound effort was blocked by the sliding Durm.

With 90 minutes having elapsed, Ireland launched one last attack and, when Hoolahan's over-hit cross was played back into the box by fellow substitute Jeff Hendrick, acting captain O'Shea was there with a neat finish to send the away fans into ecstasy.

Related articles

• O'shea grabs late draw for republic
• Germany v Republic of Ireland, Euro 2016 qualifier: live
• Germany 1-1 Republic of Ireland: John O'Shea scores dramatic equaliser in stoppage time
• Result: John O'Shea stuns Germany with late equaliser on 100th cap
• O'Shea's late strike earns Irish draw with Germany
• Germany vs. Rep. of Ireland: Score, Grades and Reaction from Euro 2016 Qualifier

Florentino at Odds with Cristiano

Getty Images

Real Madrid’s president Florentino Pérez played down an apparent spat with Cristiano Ronaldo on Friday and defended his club’s transfer policy.

Pérez, who has splashed hundreds of millions of euros of the European champions’ cash on top players in recent years, said the loyalty of Ronaldo, the current world player of the year, had been “unquestionable”. The Portugal captain made headlines on Monday when he said the club’s transfer dealings in the latest window would probably have been different if he had been in charge.

“I know Cristiano Ronaldo very well,” Pérez said in a press conference on Thursday. “Cristiano is the best player in the world and his loyalty to Madrid is unquestionable. I have listened to all the comments he made and as I know him, I know that he never questioned the club. My relationship with him is perfect, there are zero discrepancies.”

After winning a record-extending 10th European crown last season, when Ronaldo was the team’s top scorer, Real sold Xabi Alonso and Ángel di Maria and brought in Toni Kroos and James Rodríguez. The departure of Alonso to Bayern Munich, in particular, has prompted suggestions the Madrid club will not have enough quality and experience in midfield without him, while the Argentinian Di María is seen as close to Ronaldo.

Real stuttered in their second La Liga outing at the weekend when they let slip a 2-0 lead and crashed to a 4-2 reverse at Real Sociedad. Ronaldo, 29, missed the game through injury and he followed up his comments on Monday by giving an interview to a British newspaper in which he appeared to suggest he wanted to return to former club Manchester United at some point in his career.

Pérez, who pushed through a lucrative contract extension for Ronaldo in September last year that ties him to the club until 2018, defended Real’s decision to sell Alonso and Di María. “I’ve been here since 2000,” Pérez said. “Since then a lot of players have come and gone and my experience tells me that the ones that leave are always the best and those that arrive are always questioned.

“My first [signing] was [Zinezine] Zidane and the last [before this summer’s transfer market] was [Gareth] Bale. We made the best offer that we could to Di María and he didn’t accept it. Hence, we brought in James [Rodríguez], one of the best players at the World Cup and the Golden Boot award winner.

“Di María had financial requests that I considered legitimate but we couldn’t satisfy them. I reiterate that we made him the best possible offer.

“With the exception of Cristiano [Ronaldo], Di María would have been the highest paid at Real Madrid. Had we accepted his financial demands it would have created an unbalanced treatment that would have put the club’s stability in danger.”

Pérez also explained Alonso’s surprising move to Bayern. “Xabi came to us and told us that he wanted to leave,” he said. “He thought it was the best for him and for the club. Our relationship with Xabi is excellent and we accepted his proposal.

“Xabi is in the final stages of his sporting career and wants to manage it in this way. We understand it and we respect it.”

Pérez revealed that Carlo Ancelotti proved crucial in his club’s decision not to sign Radamel Falcao this summer. Falcao was heavily linked with a move to the Bernabéu in the past few months but joined Manchester United on a season-long loan from Monaco on Monday instead.

“We considered signing Falcao,” Pérez said. “But in this club we follow a sporting-economic equation which [the former club president Santiago] Bernabéu taught us, and we decided not to do so. The coach’s opinion was also important in us turning it down.

Related articles

• Why Real Madrid had to sell Di Maria to Manchester United - Florentino Perez
• Real Madrid president Florentino Perez defends sale of Angel di Maria to Manchester United
• Ronaldo hits out at Real Madrid over Di Maria sale
• Reports - Ronaldo is teeing up sensational return to Manchester United
• Real Madrid president denies row with Cristiano Ronaldo over transfers
• Florentino Perez Opens Up on Cristiano Ronaldo, Radamel Falcao, Angel Di Maria