WOLFSBURG (GERMANY), April 7: Zinedine Zidane admitted Real Madrid suffered an El Clasico hangover as they crashed to a 2-0 Champions League quarterfinal, first-leg, defeat at Wolfsburg on Wednesday.
Just five days after ending Barcelona�s 39-game unbeaten run with a 2-1 away win, Real were humbled as Wolfsburg ignored their struggling mid-table form in Germany�s top flight.
Real never recovered as first-half goals from Swiss defender Ricardo Rodriguez and Maximilian Arnold put the hosts 2-0 up at the Volkswagen Arena with 25 minutes gone.
Wolfsburg now have the upper hand ahead of Tuesday�s return leg at the Bernabeu.
�I�m not happy, above all with the first-half. This can happen if you don�t play with intensity from the start,� said coach Zidane, who made just one change from the team which beat Barca.
�We wanted to play here just like we did on Saturday, it was an intensive game for us (in Barcelona) and we were flat in the first-half here.
�Now we have a chance in the return leg and it�s good we�ve got a game in three days (at home to Eibar) to get over this defeat.
�We had our problems, not just in the intensity, but also in our movement. We didn�t expect the 2-0 defeat and we need to analyse where we went wrong and make corrections,� he said.
Zidane even said that he was proud of his players and took full responsibility for the result.
�I have to find the reasons for the defeat and the solutions,� he added.
Real�s six-game winning streak was ended as Wolfsburg picked up their first win in four games since beating Gent in the last 16 of the tournament. It was a poor performance from Real�s star forwards as Gareth Bale was kept quiet and Cristiano Ronaldo rarely shook of his markers.
France forward Karim Benzema went off on 41 minutes after a knock.
Bale was left frustrated at not being awarded a first-half penalty after a heavy challenge in the area from Luiz Gustavo. �I felt I got to the ball first and he hit me, so it is obviously frustrating, but we have another game,� said the Welshman. �We just have to make sure now that in the return we win by three goals,� he added. � AFP
