With his side being labelled favourites against Napoli, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane has urged his team to embrace it.
The teams meet in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night.
Napoli are outsiders to progress in the tournament, given that to do so they will have to eliminate the holders, and while Zidane acknowledged that his side are well placed to do so again, he isn’t taking the Italians lightly.
“In a two-legged tie, there is a return game to come and at home the important thing is to stop them scoring an away goal,” Zidane told the assembled media. “I want us to be focused on what we can do.
“We know that we can cause problems for our opponents but they can do damage to us too. We know that we are always favourites but that doesn’t mean that you are going to go on and win the Champions League.
“The road to victory is a long and difficult one but we are progressing well on it.”
Zidane also revealed that he has been impressed with his opposite number Maurizio Sarri’s meteoric rise to prominence and opened up about just how worried he is about the Partenopei’s prolific attack.
“Sarri is doing very well and he is a man who makes his teams play very well too,” Zidane added. “He gets the best out of his teams and this team is a good one.
“With all due respect to [Diego] Maradona, when he was playing I was 14 but I am a lot more scared of the guys they have on the field now than those who can’t play. I’m expecting them to be at their best and it to be a good game.”
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