Zinedine Zidane has “good memories” of Juventus, and says it’s “special” to face them in the Champions League final with Real Madrid.
The two sides meet in Cardiff this Saturday, and the Merengues Coach spent five years in Turin as a player, before moving to Estadio Bernabeu for what was then a world-record fee.
“As a Coach you feel the pressure more,” Zidane said in his Press conference today.
Zinedine Zidane has “good memories” of Juventus, and says it’s “special” to face them in the Champions League final with Real Madrid.
The two sides meet in Cardiff this Saturday, and the Merengues Coach spent five years in Turin as a player, before moving to Estadio Bernabeu for what was then a world-record fee.
“As a Coach you feel the pressure more,” Zidane said in his Press conference today.
“There are a lot of people and they let you know how important this match is. It’s important to play finals, and this is a nice moment.
“Would I Coach Juve? I’m here, and I’m just thinking about what I’m doing here. I was at Juve for five years and I have good memories, this final is special.
“Juve will play their final and we’ll play ours, it’s important that we see a good game.”
Do the sides have opposite styles of play?
“I don’t think you can say Juve defend better and Real Madrid attack better than Juve, but finals are there to be played.
“There’s not much difference between the two teams, that’s why we got to the final.
“We’ve done the hardest thing, which is getting to the final, we’ve done it well and we’re happy. Then there are no favourites in a final, they have a good team but it’s 50-50.
“We just want to play a great game and then we’ll see what happens.
“Is Paulo Dybala their most dangerous player? Yes, but they have a lot of good players. There’s [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Dani] Alves, a lot of Juve players are strong.
“There are three or four others we could talk about, but they’re all good.
“Am I afraid of Juve? I said I didn’t want to play Juve in the Last 16. Now I have no choice.
“We always believe, we’ve come to the final and achieved great results thanks to hard work. My players believed, they fought and they got their reward in the end.”
Zidane lost two finals with Juve, including against Madrid in 1998…
“Losing a final is a huge disappointment, but it’s part of football,” the Frenchman shrugged.
“I accept what football has given me. I wanted to win the Champions League, and I succeeded in a Real Madrid shirt.”