Wins over substance for Varane and Real Madrid

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane said victories are vital, no matter how they come following Thursday's 1-0 win at Leganes.

Published : Jan 19, 2018 07:41 IST

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane
Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane
lightbox-info

Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane

Raphael Varane said Real Madrid prefers to win than play well as the defender revelled in Thursday's confidence-boosting victory in the Copa del Rey.

Spanish and European champion Madrid was below its best again as a last-gasp winner from Marco Asensio spared the club's blushes in a 1-0 win at Leganes in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal.

Madrid — 19 points adrift of bitter rival and runaway leader Barcelona in LaLiga — had only won one of its past five games heading into the away fixture amid growing pressure on head coach Zinedine Zidane.

"It is important to get a win for the team's confidence, and we kept a clean sheet," said Varane.

"The coach told us we needed balance and the team's focus was great. We played worse than the other day but won. Other times we have played well and lost.

"We want to win and get on a good run. We are playing the same as last year but things are not coming together. We enjoy winning we love to compete and relish coming out on top.

"We're not thinking about the PSG tie yet, we're just focussed on winning games. We have many games left, we want to get better and be hard to beat like today."

Sign in to unlock all user benefits
  • Get notified on top games and events
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign up / manage to our newsletters with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early bird access to discounts & offers to our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide to our community guidelines for posting your comment