Zinedine Zidane Walks Tightrope Between Success and Failure at Real Madrid

What a difference 92 minutes can make. "Messi decides: We have league," as the front cover of Spain’s biggest-selling sports newspaper Marca put it on Monday morning after the most pulsating Clasico in living memory.

In the run-up to Sunday’s match, most of the talk on the airwaves and around the cafes in Spain had been end-of-an-era stuff about Barca—who had been dumped out of the Champions League by Juventus the previous week—and how Real Madrid were set to close out a league title.

Barcelona’s talisman Leo Messi, who scored two goals in a 3-2 win, including his 500th competitive goal for Barca with the last kick of the game—has turned that narrative on its head. He was spellbinding despite—or perhaps because of—some rough treatment from Marcelo, Casemiro, Mateo Kovacic and Sergio Ramos, who picked up his fifth red card in a Clasico for a two-legged lunge on the Argentinian in the second half.

The reactions after the full-time whistle said it all, Real Madrid defender Dani Carvajal pounded the turf with his fists like a farmer whose harvest had been destroyed by disease. Barca’s clutch of away supporters, about 150 in number, stayed on to savour the win, singing and pogoing in the eaves of the stadium for 45 minutes, long after Real Madrid’s forlorn fans had left the building.

David Ramos/Getty Images

Barca, who were missing Neymar for the match at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, are back on top of the league table on goal difference. It was the first time in La Liga history that Real Madrid has lost a game to a goal scored in added time at the Bernabeu, where they have played their league games since 1947, as per the statistician MisterChip (in Spanish).

If this squad of Real Madrid’s—including senior players like Ramos, Carvajal, Pepe, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema—squander a league-winning position, it won’t, however, be the first time they have done so. They imploded before in recent title races. Will they crumble again this time?

In the spring of 2014, in a three-way dash with Barca and Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid dropped soft points in the run-in, with draws to Valladolid and Valencia and a defeat away to Celta de Vigo (where they play their game in hand this season in May). Atletico did enough to win the title after drawing 1-1 with Barca in their final league game at the Camp Nou.

A season later, Real Madrid went on a 22-match run of victories over the winter. They picked up the FIFA Club World Cup in Morocco and sat comfortably at the top of the league standings in January, while across in Catalonia, Barcelona were in disarray—their coach, Luis Enrique, was at loggerheads with Messi; Andoni Zubizarreta, the sporting director, was fired; and club president Josep Maria Bartomeu felt compelled to call a snap election for the summer to try to clear the air.

But then the wheels came off for Real Madrid. They went out at the semi-final stage of the Champions League to Juventus. Barca turned a corner and ended the season with a treble. Real Madrid’s popular manager, Carlo Ancelotti, got the sack. The wait for a league title—which they haven't won since 2012—continues.

The heat is on head coach Zinedine Zidane who is overseeing the strongest Real Madrid squad in many a year. He’s been getting a pasting in the Spanish press over the last couple of days for having made a couple of fundamental errors in the Clasico.

Having secured an equaliser in the 85th minute, and playing with only 10 men, it was reckless of Real Madrid to push on and look for a winner. A draw would virtually have sealed the championship. Instead, Barcelona were able to race upfield—passing out six Real Madrid players who were attacking in Barca’s half—for the match-winner.

Such cavalier play with the league title in the balance wouldn’t have happened on the watch of, say, Jose Mourinho or Fabio Capello, two of the last three managers to win league titles at Real Madrid. It was naive on Zidane’s part, and it brought to mind how Real Madrid allowed Atletico to score a late equaliser at the Bernabeu in the league a fortnight ago.

OSCAR DEL POZO/Getty Images

There is a sense that Zidane lacks control. The performance against Barca was ragged. His side are shipping goals with abandon—11 in their previous six games. Zidane is dismissive when criticised about this attacking, laissez-faire approach.

In the post-match Clasico press conference, he was adamant: "I’m not saying we lost our heads, but with the scores level and with 10 men, we pushed very high up and that’s dangerous, so we’ve paid for it in the end. I’m not going to blame my players. We always try and win the game and we just didn’t manage it today."

Zidane is also shipping abuse for playing Bale. His decision to start him backfired. Former Real Madrid striker Fernando Morientes, among other critics, denounced Zidane for "being too quick to bring Bale back into the starting line-up," as per El Mundo (h/t Diario Sport, in Spanish). Regular substitutes for the Welshman, Isco and Marco Asensio, have been in fine form, and they have given Real Madrid better balance than Bale when in the side this season.

On Sunday, Bale wasn’t fully fit. He had returned to action in the spring after a long lay-off for an ankle injury. Then he picked up a calf strain in the first leg of the Champions League tussle with Bayern Munich and missed the second leg. He was back in the starting XI for the Clasico.

According to the Spanish radio station SER, Zidane went against the advice of the Real Madrid medical team in starting Bale for the match (h/t Diario AS). He was still labouring from the effects of edema—a swelling in the tissues of his legs—and risked aggravating injury, which is what happened as he limped off injured before half-time.

Zidane knows his fate at the club hinges on the next few weeks’ results. He’s inscrutable. He always gives the impression he looks on the imposters Triumph and Disaster the same, influenced no doubt by having watched so many of his predecessors getting ruthlessly axed. Current club president Florentino Perez once motored through seven managers during a three-year spell.

Zidane knows there are no guarantees even though he led Real Madrid to Champions League glory last season. He has a fatalist air. He’s candid about how precarious his position is. When asked a couple of weeks ago as to whether he had plans for next season and if he felt safe in his job, he responded with the tone of a man living on borrowed time, conscious of the corpses that lay strewn behind him.

“No—I’m not sure I’ll continue. I’m not preparing anything …what I do is what is left for this season. I know this club. I know what it is to coach Real Madrid, for better or worse. I’m ready for every eventuality,” he said, as per El Pais (in Spanish).

After Sunday’s defeat to Barca, which is always a nasty stain on a Real Madrid manager’s reputation, the knives are out. Antonio Conte, Mauricio Pochettino and Germany national coach Joachim Low (who has a clause in his contract that releases him from managing Germany if a “big” European club comes in with an offer for his services) are some of the names being bandied about by influential Madrid-based papers Marca and Diario AS as likely replacements (via Diario Sport, in Spanish).

Zidane needs to win the league title, at least, to hold onto his job. It’s a test of his mettle. Victory has emboldened Barca who could easily win their remaining five league fixtures, but Zidane’s fate is in his hands, as Real Madrid have a game in hand. He starts his road to redemption with a trip to Deportivo La Coruna on Wednesday. It’s a tricky tie. Barca lost in the Galician city in March.

Real Madrid have to do a patch job on their central defence. Ramos is suspended. A youth-teamer in Alejandro Salto has been called up for training as emergency cover. Pepe is injured. Raphael Varane is also out. The Frenchman has only played 10 minutes since February owing to a hamstring injury, although he is back training and might return to the side soon.

David Ramos/Getty Images

Zidane also has to contend with two draining derby matches against Atletico—the most dogged team in European football—in the Champions League semi-finals, a side bent on avenging two painful defeats in the 2014 and 2016 finals. How Real Madrid fares in that tie, risking injury and demoralising defeat, will determine a lot about how they see out their domestic league campaign.

It has been a seesaw season. The leadership at the top of the table has changed hands six times between Barca and Real Madrid. Zidane is hoping it will swing once more in Real Madrid’s favour before it concludes.

All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.

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