Zidane: I won't resign

KIEV－Zinedine Zidane insisted there is "no chance whatsoever" he will resign as Real Madrid coach after the Spanish giant slumped to a 2-0 Champions League Group B defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine on Tuesday.

The loss was Madrid's second defeat to the Ukrainians in this season's competition to leave its hopes of reaching the last 16 hanging in the balance.

Substitutes Dentinho and Manor Solomon scored second-half goals in Kiev as Shakhtar stunned the 13-time European champion again, having already won 3-2 in Madrid in October. Shakhtar had lost its last two Group B matches against Borussia Moenchengladbach by an aggregate score of 10-0, but this victory allowed it to move above Madrid into second place in the group with one game remaining.

Gladbach tops the section by a point, while Shakhtar now has the upper hand on Madrid thanks to its superior head-to-head record.

However, Inter Milan's 3-2 win away to Gladbach not only kept the Italians alive, but also limited the damage for Madrid, which knows a win at home to the German club next week will take it through, regardless of how Shakhtar fares in its last game.

Madrid has made it out of its group in every year since 1997, so failure to qualify would be seen as a disaster. Zidane said he would not leave the club he has so far led to three Champions League triumphs and two La Liga titles over two spells as coach.

"There's no chance whatsoever of me standing down. We're going to keep going," Zidane said.

"We've had some tricky times and you're always going to get them. We're on a bad run in terms of results, that's the reality of it, but we've got to keep going."

"I have the strength needed to turn the situation around and I am going to give everything to do that, so are the players," added the Frenchman, whose team also lost at the weekend, going down 2-1 at home to Alaves in La Liga.

"We played well and we deserved more. We just need to lift our heads up and think about the next game."

Madrid was returning to the scene of its 2018 final victory over Liverpool, but it looked a shadow of its former self in Kiev's chilly Olympic Stadium. The result underlined how much Madrid relies on captain Sergio Ramos－this was Real's seventh loss in nine Champions League matches when it has played without Ramos, who is injured.

Perhaps this game would have turned out differently had Marco Asensio scored in the fifth minute rather than turn Karim Benzema's cross onto a post. Instead, Madrid went on to slump to a third defeat in five matches in all competitions.

AFP