By Lawrence Manngenje

Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane says he does not feel any kind of pressure despite his charges losing  two consecutive home games.

The Frenchman’s tactics have under scrutiny after Los Blancos were surprisingly beaten by lowly Elche in LaLiga and failed to come back to winning ways in the Champions League when they lost to Shakhtar Donetsk on Wednesday despite the Ukrainian side missing ten regular players due to the novel Covid-19.

Up next for Zidane is arguably the biggest game in world football, a showdown between Real and arch-rivals Barcelona, slated for tomorrow at Camp Nou.

Speaking ahead of the ‘Elclasico’ and responding to suggestions that his job is on the line, Zidane said he is unfazed by pressure since it is not something new.

“”That’s what they say [that my job is under threat] – I won’t deny it,” Zidane said. “What changes? Last year the same, in the first spell the same… What I have to do is my job, the rest is irrelevant,” he said.

“We got off to a bad start in the sense that when we conceded a goal, we found it hard to get our heads up again,” Zidane explained. “We found it difficult to play against a team that sits so deep, but in football there are ups and downs and you have to accept that.”

He continued: “We want to now focus on a different game tomorrow and forget about what happened the other day. We have the chance to turn things around and it’s a good and special match to do so.”