Zinedine Zidane Says He Is to Blame for Real Madrid's 'Worst Game of Season'

Zinedine Zidane has said he is to blame for Real Madrid's 2-1 loss against Real Betis on Sunday which saw them lose the initiative to Barcelona in the title race just a week on from beating them in El Clasico.

Real needed to win at the Estadio Benito Villamarin to return to the top of the table after Barca scraped a 1-0 victory over Real Sociedad on Saturday. 

Karim Benzema cancelled out Sidnei's opener just before half-time, but Cristian Tello netted the hosts' second eight minutes from time to secure all three points:

Real have now lost three of their last four games in all competitions.

Zidane took full responsibility for the defeat at Betis and pulled no punches in his assessment of his side's performance, per Dejan Kalinic of Goal:

"We didn't get anything today, and I'm to blame for it. I have to look at what happened; we're going to fight the league to the end. I am with my players till the death. I am responsible here. We will analyse what happened and move on.

"We played badly. Many mistakes. We lacked everything, play, possession, aggression, our worst game of season. Didn't deserve to win. We can't be happy. We started badly, and could not correct it. I've no explanation at moment, we just lacked a bit of everything.

"I am to blame as motivation, This is my responsibility. We didn't generate anything today. We've lacked everything, especially ball possession, we never lose so many balls, that's been our main problem tonight."

Real are in danger of letting the 2019-20 campaign slip away from them if they do not turn their form around quickly.

Friday's clash with Eibar in La Liga is now a must-win fixture in order to put pressure on Barca before their visit to Mallorca on Saturday.

Then Los Blancos have the second leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie against Manchester City.

The Sky Blues won the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu 2-1, so Real will need to produce one of their best performances of the season at the Etihad Stadium if they are to avoid being eliminated from the Champions League in the first knockout round for the second season running.

In Zidane's first spell in charge of Real between 2016 and 2018, the Madrid giants won three Champions League titles in a row to take their all-time tally to 13.

City have never reached the final in Europe's elite club competition, but in Pep Guardiola they do have a manager who previously won the famous trophy twice in three seasons with Barcelona. 

The Champions League is City's top priority this season as they are all but guaranteed to lose their Premier League crown to Liverpool.