Alvaro Odriozola Says Real Madrid Are 'Playing for Life and Death'

Real Madrid defender Alvaro Odriozola said he and his team-mates are "playing for life and death" in each game despite their poor performance in their 3-2 win over Huesca on Sunday.

Los Blancos needed a last-minute winner from Karim Benzema at home to the team propping up the rest of La Liga.

Per Sport, Odriozola said:

"We're very happy with the win, it was a tough game. All the teams come here to make it hard for us, at the end of the day they're playing for life and death, but so are we too.

"We have to admit there are things we would like to improve but we won and that's the important thing.

"Very often in football you don't know why things go your way and sometimes they don't. In the first half they didn't, in the second they did.

"We lost the ball a lot and that helped them soar and they caused us danger. We didn't shine as brightly as on other occasions but we had to win and we did, so we're happy."

Despite the win, Real remain third in La Liga, 12 points behind leaders Barcelona with nine matches remaining after a disappointing season.

Los Blancos have won both their matches since Zinedine Zidane replaced Santiago Solari in March, but they remain unconvincing. Zidane is the third manager to take charge of the team this season, with Solari having taken over from Julen Lopetegui in October.

ESPN FC's Dermot Corrigan was not impressed with their display at the Santiago Bernabeu on Sunday, while Ben Hayward of the Evening Standard saw familiar issues in their play:

Real fell behind to Cucho Hernandez after just three minutes. Having got themselves back in front courtesy of Isco and Dani Ceballos, they needed a rescue from Benzema after Xabier Etxeita fired the relegation candidates level.

The match was watched by a relatively small crowd in the Spanish capital, per sports journalist Richard Martin:

Per Goal, Zidane said after the match that "it's hard to motivate the team when you know you are not going to win any title this season."

With a squad overhaul likely awaiting this summer after a disastrous campaign, some of Real's players could be fighting for their futures at the club in the remaining matches of the season.

On Wednesday, a trip to sixth-place Valencia could provide an even tougher test than Huesca did.

Real will need to play far better if they're to come away with three points from the Mestalla Stadium.